Brave Advocacy

When I was at a meeting of some of the awesome leadership of MedFLAG (Medical Friends of Lesbians & Gays, the queer/ally group of my med school), I remember one person brought up her frustration with always having to carry the burden of being the "spokesperson" for her class, the token med student who could explain concepts that were foreign to her colleagues, like how to avoid heteronormative speak when interviewing patients, how to be culturally sensitive with LGBT folks, etc.  While it can be rewarding to be an advocate, of sorts, for oppressed individuals and communities, it can also be exhausting to seemingly always have to be the one person who addresses problematic issues - like lobbying for a unisex bathroom that is inclusive for transgender/genderqueer people, or campaigning to bring more diverse faculty members into an ethnically homogeneous academic environment.


You may ask yourself, Why is this only my job to make sure we are being inclusive and sensitive?  Why isn't anyone else contributing to this?  It's a lot of responsibility to have to be the one with the keen eye and the unfaltering voice.  It's hard work to be "that person" who calls things out when they aren't quite kosher, who strives to make things better for people who may not have a voice.

I call this Brave Advocacy. It's fearlessly confronting someone who's being unfair, or who is using their privilege to silence or disempower those who may already have many barriers due to minority status or being "out of the mainstream" in some respect.  It's shining the light on circumstances that continue to cycle vulnerable groups into a spiral of despair, and working to improve their quality of life.  And most importantly, it's educating others about how they, too, can learn from and connect with historically disempowered communities and create new possibilities for people who seem to have no hope left.

As part of our Leadership in Medicine for the Underserved program at MSU, we put our heads together and came up with a number of groups that we believe to be at-risk or vulnerable in some way.  This is a peek at what we came up with: 

Ethnic minorities/Inner city/Rural/Poor/Homeless/Inmates/Migrants/Refugees/Sex workers/LGBTQ/Elders/Abuse survivors/Mentally ill/Developmentally disabled

How many more can you think of?  Whom do you feel called to reach out to in their struggles? There is an overwhelming amount of suffering in this world.  If we could all share just a small part of ourselves to help improve the experience of a person in need, can you imagine the impact?  

For those of us who are passionately and compassionately driven to uplift individuals and groups facing discrimination on multiple levels, we realize an even greater impact by positively influencing others to make a difference.  As one person, I can do some things.  But if other people get on board, all the better!  This is why that education piece is so important.  In general, it's not that people don't care; they're just not aware about the issues.  For example, I gained some great insights on LGBT health issues during my rotation in NYC.  While I could be selfish and keep all that juicy info to myself, I just couldn't contain myself and realized what a greater impact I could have by blogging about my experiences, facilitating a talk on trans healthcare to my colleagues, and basically telling anyone who cared to listen about what I learned and how this can make us more considerate and caring physicians and people.  


I learn so much from my patients and colleagues every day.  And it means so much more when I can share those lessons with others.  In this way, we learn how to do a better job, we spread the word to others, and this is how change is made.  Will you be a brave advocate?  Will you pay it forward and share the insights you gain so that "it gets better" for others?