Wiener bill aims to improve transgender medical care in California
Legislation to be taken up by California lawmakers this year aims to improve transgender medical care throughout the state. It would require medical professionals who interact with transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex patients to receive cultural competency training, and health providers would need to create searchable online directories of their gender-affirming services.
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is introducing Senate Bill 923, the TGI Inclusive Care Act, Friday (February 4).
All health providers and staff who interact with transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex individuals would be required to undergo the cultural competency training under the bill.
It also mandates that the trainings must be facilitated by TGI-led organizations and include the perspectives of TGI people. "It's simple: transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex people deserve the same quality of health care that everyone else receives," stated Wiener. "No one should go to a doctor's appointment only to be misgendered, harassed, or even refused treatment." According to a report about LGBTQ medical care in California called "Surveying the Road to Equity: The Annual State of LGBTQ Communities, 2019," which was released in November 2020, health care settings not affirming of LGBTQ patients are a considerable problem in the state.
