“Bodies & Barriers: Queer Activists on Health”

Adrian Shanker talks with Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ about “Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health” the new critically acclaimed anthology that creates a road map for action that could improve LGBTQ health. With essays by twenty-six well-known and emerging LGBTQ activists the book challenges conventional wisdom about healthcare providers and probes deeply into the roots of the health disparities that worsens health outcomes for our LGBTQ community. This book couldn’t be more relevant as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the onset of HIV/AIDS in America LGBTQ people have struggled against healthcare bias and discrimination. Through contributing authors that include Alisa Bowman, Jack Harrison-Quintana, Liz Margolies, Robyn Ochs, Sean Strub, Justin Tanis, Ryan Thoreson, Imani Woody and more “Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health” provides us with crucial information to fight for health equity through clinical, behavioral and policy changes. Though our LGBTQ community has experienced great strides toward civil rights in this country our health as a community still lags. “Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health” provides an indispensable blueprint for change by some of the most passionate and important health activists in the LGBTQ movement today calling on clinicians to up their game when it comes to caring for sexual and gender minority people. We talked to Adrian about what he hopes to accomplish with “Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health” and his spin on our LGBTQ issues. 

Adrian Shanker earned a Graduate Certificate in LGBT Health Policy and Practice from George Washington University and serves as Executive Director of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, PA. A specialist in LGBTQ health policy he has developed leading-edge health promotion campaigns to advance health equity through behavioral, clinical and policy changes. Adrian administered data collection for the 2015, 2018 and 2020 Pennsylvania LGBTQ Health Needs Assessments. He co-authored “Queer and Quitting: Addressing Tobacco Use as an LGBTQ Issue” in The Routledge Handbook for LGBTQIA Administration and Policy. Adrian serves as Commissioner and Health Committee Co-Chair on the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. Previously he served on the Office of Health Equity Advisory Board at Pennsylvania Department of Health. He was named a “Healthcare Hero” by Lehigh Valley Business and twice named ‘Person of the Year’ by Philadelphia Gay News. “Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health” with Foreword by Rachel L. Levine, MD and Afterword by Kate Kendell is published by PM Press.

For More Info: pmpress.org

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