In honor of Pride Weekend, I figured I would write something about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) issues in medical school. This is a hard topic to address because it is very broad and because one would hope that it would not really need addressing in the 21st century. But I know when I was a premed I was concerned about how being a lesbian would affect my medical school experience and I could not find much information out there. If you head over to Student Doctor Network, a lot of the threads asking for advice on being GLBT and applying tend to deteriorate into troll-fests and debates about other issues. So with that in mind, here are a few thoughts that hopefully will be helpful to someone out there.

Is medical school GLBT-friendly?

It really depends on the school. And within that it really depends on the class itself. Likely at every school there will be some people who are GLBT-friendly and some people who are not. You can try to get a gauge on it by seeing if the school has an active GLBT student group and if they include GLBT health in the curriculum in some form. AMSA has a GLBT listserv, housing list for interviews, and some other information you can use to try to get in touch with students at the school to get some idea.

Should I be out on my medical school application?

This depends a lot on your personal experiences and your comfort level. Usually it gets boiled down to two arguments: 1. med school admissions are random and competitive as is and you should never risk putting something that could be controversial on your application 2. you should be out because if they are not okay with it, you do not want to be at that school anyway. In reality, it is not that simple. The person who reads your application/interviews you may or may not be representative of the school as a whole.

If you are unsure of what to do, I would ask yourself a few questions: did being GLBT play a big role in your desire to become a physician? If it did, then maybe you want to include it in your personal statement. If it did not, then focus on the experiences that did motivate you to become a physician. Did being GLBT affect your academic performance in some way that you think may impact your application? If so, maybe you want to talk about it on your secondary where it allows you to explain extenuating circumstances. Were your activities/leadership roles in GLBT organizations or healthcare settings? Then you likely will want to list them on your application and talk about them at interviews. If you are worried about these experiences hurting you, maybe you want to slightly modify your descriptions of them ie, "I worked with a youth group and mentored high school students" rather than "I worked with a GLBT youth group and mentored GLBT high school students."

The bottom line is if you are going to be out just make it relevant to part of the application and you are less likely to encounter problems. Remember, if you list it on the application, you need to be ready to talk about it at the interview. This goes for GLBT issues as well as anything that someone might find controversial, ie, volunteering at/protesting in front of an abortion clinic or involvement in political or religious groups. You really never know what someone might or might not take issue with. So think about how comfortable you are talking about these topics at an interview and let that guide you. For the record, I was out on my applications where it was relevant and it was never an issue at any of my medical school interviews. It was generally discussed briefly, like all of my other stuff, and then we moved on.

What will my dating life be like in medical school if I am gay?

I imagine it will not be that different than that of your straight classmates with one exception. They will have the bulk of the single classmates of the opposite sex as potential dates, while you will likely find that there are few other GLBT students in your class. So your potential dating pool in medical school is likely to be small to non-existent. You may want to consider this and pick a school in an urban area with an active GLBT community, or a med school that is connected to a larger university community so you can meet people outside of medical school.

Will the school offer benefits to my same-sex partner? Should I ask about this at my interview?

The good news is that you can often find the answer to this by looking around on the school's website. Whether you ask about it at the interview really depends on your comfort level as we discussed above. Another option, if you are not comfortable asking in person, would be to anonymously email or call the university's HR office to find this out.

If I am in a same-sex marriage, civil union, or registered domestic partnership in my state, will it affect my financial aid?

It should not have any impact on your federal loans because they will not recognize the marriage and view you as a single person. It could potentially affect your eligibility for state or institutional loans if your spouse's/partner's income is recognized and considered. You'd have to check with your financial aid office.