Transgender people have a long history of facing discrimination from medical professionals, but that no longer has to be the case thanks to a new database that helps queer patients from all over the spectrum find welcoming doctors and clinics. The Referral Aggregator Database (RAD) Remedy launched in June and already has over 2,000 referrals listed from community members all over the country.
RAD functions much like it’s parent site, Yelp, and allows users to search by location, service, and provider name to find not just queer-friendly doctors, but other things such as legal services and support groups. The site also allows users to search by “population,” where the filters are gender identity, age, ethnicity, able- or non-able-bodied, payment options, sexual orientation, and experiences. The experience filter allows for other categories of identities like immigrants, survivors of abuse, and sex workers to be included.
Though the site is still in it’s beta testing stage, the community feedback shows that it’s helping their target audience in a big way.
Queer people have always struggled to find safe and reliable access to health care services, but recently the transgender population has been reported as having the highest level of mental and physical health issues like suicide attempts and drug abuse of any other population. In a survey, RAD users reported that they often have to educate their providers on basic trans health. One user said, “I generally have negative experiences with doctors who view my identity as psychologically ‘abnormal’ or as a medical concern and who spend time trying to tell me why that is rather than just listening to me define my own experience and tell them what I need from them or what my own concerns are.”
Looking forward, the RAD administrators say they have plans to extend the site into a program called “RAD Certified,” where providers would be required to prove they were actively educating their team on queer health topics, and if approved would receive a badge from RAD declaring them safe. The site is gaining momentum quickly, and hopes to one day be able to provide their services in every language, to make finding a safe place possible for queer individuals all over the world.
Cover image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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