Guest Opinion: Addressing discrepancy in care: CA's TGI Inclusive Care Act
Last month, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 293, the TGI Inclusive Care Act. This bill will require that California health care providers and staff receive crucial training in transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex (TGI) cultural humility, in order to provide inclusive care to these communities.
It will also require health care plans to indicate which in-network providers offer gender-affirming treatment. This historic bill will push California's health care system to enact a long overdue shift, integrating TGI awareness into the mainstream health establishment.
We hope this is the first legislative step of many that will begin to address the systemic discrimination and mistreatment of TGI people seeking health care.Despite the dearth of research on TGI communities, it is well documented that we experience high rates of health inequities in California and nationwide.
This is exacerbated for TGI people who are also Black, Indigenous, people of color, immigrants, disabled, sex workers, trans women, and/or other subpopulations vulnerable to systemic violence.
