Lower East Side And Kips Bay Hospitals Open LGBTQ Health Centers

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Two additional health centers for the LGBTQ community were added to Health + Hospitals locations in Kips Bay and the Lower East Side, the healthcare system announced Thursday.

Adding to two existing Pride Health Centers in the Upper East Side and Bed-Stuy, NYC Health + Hospitals is opening two more centers at Bellevue in Kips Bay and Gouverneur on the Lower East Side.

The new centers will provide myriad services, ensuring all staff — from the front desk to doctors — are trained to provide healthcare to LGBTQ patients who have often faced a history of discrimination in healthcare systems, per Health + Hospitals.

"What our Pride Health Centers do is provide a space for LGBTQ folks [and] for our communities who have a lot of worry about going to a general clinic — because we've historically experienced a lot of discrimination both in healthcare systems and outside of healthcare systems," said Sarah Bender, Associate Director of Gender Equity at the healthcare system's diversity and inclusion office.

"I think most of us who identify as LGBTQ have at least one horror story, or ten million horror stories, about going to a doctor and being treated horribly, so [at] the Pride Centers, we're being proactive in saying these are places where you don't even have to second guess coming," Bender said.

Celebrating #PrideMonth with @DrKatzNYCHH at ribbon cutting @NYCHealthSystem Gouverneur's new Pride Center. pic.twitter.com/gjzl8vnlnw
— Herminia Palacio (@HerminiaPalacio) June 6, 2019

For one patient, the care he received at a Pride Center at Metropolitan in the Upper East Side came at a time when finding a doctor that provided adequate care to him as a transgender man was difficult, he said.

"I had gotten denied so many times that I felt depressed," said Stephen Rodriguez, of the Bronx.

"I suffered through some things and being there [at Metropolitan], the doctors and everybody just showed me love, showed me care," said Rodriguez, who started taking testosterone back in 2017. A doctor at Metropolitan explained how hormone treatment and chest surgery would impact him in far greater detail than previous providers had. The doctors at Metropolitan also helped him deal with an injury following surgery, he said.

The clinic provides hormone therapy and referrals for gender-affirming surgeries. It it also provides basic health needs, such as cervical and anal cancer screenings, vaccines, contraception, or managing high blood pressure and diabetes.

“I think it’s important to offer these services because I think everybody deserves a primary care doctor that’s going to fight for them," said Meena Fatimi, a lead primary care physician at Gouverneur's clinic.

"I provide services that are generally primary care and some gender-affirming care that might be specific to [transgender and gender-non-conforming] folks," she said. "And then some other things that are routine primary care but people might not feel comfortable accessing — like cervical pap smears, anal pap smears."

Pride Health Centers are now located at Health + Hospitals locations at Bellevue, 462 First Ave.; Gotham Health/Gouverneur, 227 Madison St.; Metropolitan, 1901 First Ave.; and Woodhull, 760 Broadway, Brooklyn.

"At a time when the federal government is turning its back on our LGBTQ [and] Gender non-binary neighbors, this city is making it clear that everyone has the right to be ... exactly who they are and to get the care they need without discrimination," Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Herminia Palacio said in a statement.

At Gouverneur, the Pride Health Center will be open Friday 9 a.m. to noon. At Bellevue, it will be open Mondays and Fridays 9 a.m. to noon, with availability on Tuesday and Thursday for urgent appointments. Beyond the center's specific hours, LGBTQ-affirming care is still available full-time at both sites.

Each center will have three dedicated doctors with a team of providers.

LGBTQ services for youth can be found at Judson Health Center, 34 Spring St. in Manhattan.

To make an appointment, call 844-NYC-4NYC.