Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Improving culturally safe engagement with sexual and gender minority populations

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Cultural safety seeks to remediate health inequities through empowering marginalized and minoritized patient populations, minimizing implicit bias and incorporating social determinants of health into practice. Here, we propose a cultural safety framework to guide communication with patients from sexual and gender minorities.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Rosa, W. E., Metheny, N. & Banerjee, S. C. LGBTQIA+ affirming palliative care and communication in liver transplantation. Lancet Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 9, 106–107 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Lee, T.-H., Duong, N., Sutha, K., Simonetto, D. A. & Paul, S. Liver transplantation for people of minoritised sexual and gender identities in the USA. Lancet Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 8, 1152–1162 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Mukerjee, R., Wesp, L., Singer, R. & Menkin, D. (eds) Clinician’s Guide to LGBTQIA+ Care: Cultural Safety and Social Justice in Primary, Sexual, and Reproductive Healthcare (Springer Publishing, 2021).

  4. Velez, C., Casimiro, I., Pitts, R., Streed, C. Jr & Paul, S. Digestive health in sexual and gender minority populations. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 117, 865–875 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Paul, S. Overcoming the challenges and mitigating the disparities in our LGBTQI+ patients. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 116, 1815–1818 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Sevelius, J. M., Chakravarty, D., Dilworth, S. E., Rebchook, G. & Neilands, T. B. Gender affirmation through correct pronoun usage: development and validation of the transgender women’s importance of pronouns (TW-IP) scale. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 17, 9525 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Language, Narrative and Concepts. American Medical Association https://www.ama-assn.org/about/ama-center-health-equity/advancing-health-equity-guide-language-narrative-and-concepts-0 (2021).

  8. Damaskos, P., Amaya, B., Gordon, R. & Walters, C. B. Intersectionality and the LGBT cancer patient. Semin. Oncol. Nurs. 34, 30–36 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Newsha Nikzad

  2. Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Nikki Duong

  3. Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition, Center for Liver Disease, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Sonali Paul

Authors
  1. Newsha Nikzad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nikki Duong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sonali Paul
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonali Paul.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nikzad, N., Duong, N. & Paul, S. Improving culturally safe engagement with sexual and gender minority populations. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-024-00927-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-024-00927-y

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing