PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 9, 2024
Contact: Eli Duffy
Communications & Development Manager
eduffy@glma.org
Washington, DC - GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality is pleased to announce the release of its 2024 Summer Policy and Position Statement updates. These updates encompass various crucial subjects, such as reproductive care access, evaluation of existing blood donation policies, and advocating for more-inclusive discrimination protections. These updates exemplify GLMA's steadfast commitment to promoting equitable and comprehensive care for all individuals.
These new and updated policies and position statements include:
142-24-101. Condemnation of Efforts to Restrict Reproductive Freedom (New)
GLMA believes that recent efforts to restrict or ban in vitro fertilization (IVF), birth control, and abortion-related healthcare services are part of a reprehensible continuum of efforts to restrict or eliminate bodily autonomy, which must be denounced and condemned. GLMA calls on federal, state, and local government entities to expand reproductive healthcare access to all persons regardless of sexual orientation, indigenous heritage, citizenship status, veteran status, race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, housing status, ability, age, body size, and class (in addition to other marginalized identities) and recognizes those holding minoritized identities, in particular, struggle with inequitable access to reproductive healthcare options (see GLMA policy 122-02-102-23 Support for Full Reproductive Services). This call for expanded access to reproductive healthcare access is inclusive of reproductive technologies such as IVF, which many LGBTQ+ people depend on for family building. GLMA affirms that fertilized eggs or embryos are biologically distinct from children1-3 and should not be considered morally, ethically, or biologically equivalent. Further, in alignment with other health professional and legal organizations, GLMA denounces and condemns federal, state, and local legislative, executive, and judicial restrictions on access to reproductive health services such as abortion, birth control, and IVF4-11 among others.
In 2016, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and apply that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability, designated sexual and gender minorities (SGM) as a health disparity population for research. Although the total number of projects related to LGBTQ+ communities has increased, lesbian, sexual minority women, and women who have sex with women (WSW) are still largely unrepresented and underfunded relative to other LGBTQ+ communities, resulting in a lack of research and clinical practice guidelines available to health professionals who work with these communities, which may result in inequitable health outcomes. To advance health equity for all LGBTQ+ communities, GLMA calls for the NIH to increase funding to expand and support research on the health of lesbian, sexual minority women, and WSW to advance health equity.
GLMA urges the FDA to continue to encourage and monitor scientific advances in tissue testing methodology to enlarge the pool of potential safe eligible tissue donors as well as ensure equitable donation processes (e.g., inclusive gender markers for donors) for all donors regardless of sex assigned at birth, gender identity, and/or sexual orientation.
In 1994, the Public Health Service implemented a 5-year blanket deferral for any tissue donors who were MSM (men who have sex with men), a policy that has remained in effect since introduction.
GLMA urges the FDA to revise the Eligibility Determination for Donors of Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular and Tissue-Based Products (HCT/Ps) and the current 5-year blanket deferral for MSM (men who have sex with men). GLMA urges the American Association of Tissue Banks, as well as other regulatory bodies and tissue banks to update their screening guidelines to transition to an individual risk assessment for all donors, not just MSM, as the FDA did with blood donation eligibility in May of 2023. These recommendations are also supported by the AMA, in their policy, Blood and Tissue Donor.
145-24-104. Support for Health Professional Education Regarding the Needs of LGBTQ+ Youth (Updated)
GLMA resolves to promote cultural and clinical education of health professionals responsible for the mental, social and physical health and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth. Given the inextricable intersections of health care, education, and early learning on youth health and well-being outcomes, GLMA broadly encourages health professionals to collaborate with early childhood through adolescent educational professionals, including but not limited to educators, school support staff, mental health professionals, and social service professionals who are part of the network that addresses the social determinants of health.
144-24-103. Support for Research Regarding the Health and Well-Being of LGBTQ+ Youth (Updated)
GLMA encourages researchers to add youth to existing research projects and develop specific research projects for youth, while including, authentically engaging with, and partnering with youth to incorporate their voices and experiences in all stages of the research process with the goal of supporting comprehensive health for LGBTQ+ youth.
GLMA encourages health professionals, policymakers, and advocates to review the Summer Policy and Position Statement updates in full and incorporate them into their work and understandings of LGBTQ+ health. By aligning policies and practices with these guidelines, we can collectively improve the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ individuals.
Visit GLMA’s Policy and Position Statements page to read the full text and learn more.
About GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality
GLMA is a national organization committed to ensuring health equity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities and equality for LGBTQ+ health professionals in their work and learning environments. To achieve this mission, GLMA utilizes the scientific expertise of its diverse multidisciplinary membership to inform and drive advocacy, education, and research.