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.