NUR1 421 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: People For The American Way, School, Gender Identity
11 Jun 2018
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NUR1 421 – RESOURCES: SPECIAL POPULATIONS
Lesson 6 ~ February 16th, 2018
GUEST SPEAKER #1: PIERRE-PAUL TELLIER
“IGBTQ POWERPOINT”
- Note: Most of the presentation taken directly from slides
o Will highlight most important parts in these notes
- Dr. Pierre-Paul Tellier
o Main point: “Who I am Affects My Health”
o Helps patients who have difficulty accessing healthcare
o Has worked for 36 years at Heads and Hands walk in clinic
- On the average, physicians do not know how to talk to patients
o Nurses are often more skilled in this area
- Introduction: Personal story
o One year ago, Dr. Tellier came to McGill to give this same presentation
o This was one week after his husband had died
o They would have been together 40 years this summer
o Husband was diagnosed with cancer
o Through his husband’s diagnosis and treatment, observed how physicians often do not know how
to speak to patients in a way that the patient can understand
- Here today to talk about health from the LGBT perspectives
- Definitions
o Sexual orientation
§ Homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual
§ Who we choose to have sex with
o Homosexuality
§ Lesbian: popular term for homosexual female
§ Gay: popular term for homosexual male
§ Queer
• Being reclaimed by young people
• For older population, term very negatively received
o Term previously used as an insult in the school yard
o Signified “nasty, different”
• Not a term to be used in clinical settings
• Wait until client uses the term and then ask permission for you as a healthcare
worker (HCW) to use the term
o Gender Identity
§ Essentially how we place ourselves in a gender identity within our own culture
§ Traditionally a binary identity (male OR female)
§ Can be visualized as a scale/spectrum, need to respect and understand that people may
choose to not be only male OR female
o Gender Role
§ How we express ourselves outwardly
o Gender queer
§ Person who chooses to live outside the binary
o Agender
§ Does not identify as any gender
o Cis-gender
§ Person who identifies with their biological sex from birth
§ Gender identity matches what person sees when they look at themselves in a mirror
o Two-Spirited
§ Term in use since the 1900s
§ Refers to who a person is spiritually, and not solely their genital organs or genital contact
§ Brings these elements together in a positive manner
§ Some people choose to use this term within the Indigenous population
o Transgenderism
§ Person who detects an incongruence between their gender identity and biological sex
• Results in person feeling anxious distressed
• May be unable to speak about their feelings
§ Example from Heads and Hands clinic
• Patient who had appointments in Dr. Tellier’s office
• On the walls of the office were medical images of vaginas and a poster of a client,
who looked like a man, coming for a PAP smear
• Patient would be consistently anxious during appointments
• Finally, patient expressed that the vaginas were a trigger to him feeling anxious as
it showed pictures of things she did not like
o Transexual
§ Person who has undergone surgery to change their external genitalia
o Intersex
§ Biological
§ External genitalia which do not correlate
o FTM
§ Transsexual: female to male
o MTF
§ Transsexual: male to female
o Transvestite
§ Choose to live as the opposite gender
§ Example: person who chooses to dress as the opposite gender
o Androgynes
§ Person who is not binary
§ Will often see this term in old medical literature
- Transgender individuals are often considered to have a disorder
o Labelled as abnormal or sick by HCW
o Given a psychiatric diagnosis: Gender Dysphoria
o Advantage of this medical diagnosis is that it allows people to receive medication and funding
for surgeries that is paid by the government
o Disadvantage is that creates a pathological label, may cause emotional and mental health issues
- Definitions continued…
o Passing
§ People who dress and appear to be as the gender they want to be identified with
§ May require hormones, surgeries, etc.
o Homophobia
§ Fear or hatred of people who are homosexual
§ Examples from the USA and Canada
• Rhetoric of governmental leaders (especially in US) who speak against these
groups opens the doors for other citizens to express their negative feelings, which
may result in verbal and/or physical injury
o Heterosexism
§ A belief system
§ Assuming that all people are heterosexual
§ Example: Dr. Tellier used to have a picture of two little boys on his desk
§ People would see the picture and immediately ask “are these your kids? Are you married”
§ Assuming that he is married to a woman and having children
§ Picture is actually of his two nephews
- Homosexual Identity Development
o Explains the development of an individual according to their sexual identity and the possible
impacts this has
o Many theories exist, all theories resemble each other
§ All have a background of stigma
o Identity develops over long period of time
§ May still be resolving identity issues as an older adult
o Involves being more at ease with who you are
o Easier to label yourself as homosexual
o Contact becomes more personalized and increases with people of your own gender
§ At the beginning of creating a homosexual identity, tend to sexualize other people of
same gender
§ As progress, realize that who you have sex with does not define who you are as a person
§ Part of accepting who you are and saying, “I am like other people”
§ May have sex with other men, or women, or both, but there are other defining aspects of
life that important and not just about sex
• Example: Career goals
o Dynamic: continuously changing
o Development may be disorganized and arrest or regress
o Frequently considered male oriented, but may also appears with other genders
o Theory Euroamerican in orientation, does not apply to all cultures
- Homosexual identity development stage model by Richard Troiden
o Four stages
1) Sensitization
§ Occurs when young
§ Do not feel the same as others
§ Do not adhere to cultural norms
• Example: Girl who prefers to play with trucks over dolls
§ May be bullied in schoolyard, called ‘faggot’ or ‘queer’
§ Also applies to many transgender kids
• Do not feel comfortable in their own bodies and with their genitalia
2) Identity-confusion
§ Appears during adolescence
§ Genitals growing and changing
• Example: Boy may have an erection when he sees another male
§ Confusion related to differing cultural norms
• Example: Discrepancy between what is shown on social media / movies and what
person is actually experiencing
§ Start to identify with labels and negative stereotypes from before
• Example: ‘faggot’, ‘queer’
§ Creates inner confusion and turmoil
§ Leads to feelings of isolation, may search for people to talk to
• May become depressed and suicidal
• Increased suicide rates in this population
3) Identity assumption
§ Begin to experiment and act upon assumed identity
§ May not necessarily be a good thing if act upon it without adequate knowledge
Document Summary
Note: most of the presentation taken directly from slides: will highlight most important parts in these notes. Dr. pierre-paul tellier: main point: who i am affects my health , helps patients who have difficulty accessing healthcare, has worked for 36 years at heads and hands walk in clinic. On the average, physicians do not know how to talk to patients: nurses are often more skilled in this area. Here today to talk about health from the lgbt perspectives. Who we choose to have sex with: homosexuality. Essentially how we place ourselves in a gender identity within our own culture. Traditionally a binary identity (male or female) Can be visualized as a scale/spectrum, need to respect and understand that people may choose to not be only male or female: gender role. How we express ourselves outwardly: gender queer. Person who chooses to live outside the binary: agender. Does not identify as any gender: cis-gender.
