LGBTQAI+ communities have faced discrimination in health care due to inadequate medical policy, health insurance discrimination, and entrenched prejudice. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation. The colloquium Affirming Medical and Mental Health Care for LGBTQAI+ Communities on February 25-26, 2021 brings together experts from the fields of medicine and mental health, social sciences, and humanities. This event advances and challenges the national discussion on health care systems. All health care providers must practice cultural sensitivity and inclusion in order to increase our capacity for providing critical and holistic health care.
Registration is Free. Join the national conversation to redefine health care as a more beloved community.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld MD, MPH
Jesse is Senior Associate Dean of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Director of Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment (AHW). Dr. Ehrenfeld is the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association (AMA) and remains on the executive board. Read more about Jesse
Virtual Library and Biography
The Virtual Library includes publications authored and edited by, or featuring participants of the LGBTQAI+ Health Colloquium. Learn more…
Read the biographies about the featured participants of the LGBTQAI+ Health Colloquium. Learn more…
Day One, Thursday, February 25, 2021
D1-Session I
2:00 – 2:30 p.m.: Day One Welcome
Ann Treadaway, Christian Fuscarino, and Former Governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey
2:30 – 3:45 p.m.: Classrooms, Cultural Centers, and Communities: Mentoring Resilient Queer and Trans Young People in Higher Education
Dean Mark S. Schuster
From SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) to Stonewall, young people have been at the forefront of social movements for justice across our nation. Our current academic year continues in that tradition. Considered a laboratory of ideas, the academy has been a site of learning, conflict, growth, and challenge for students, faculty, and staff. An intergenerational panel discusses the role of mentoring and supporting LGBTQIA+ young people in their journey as change makers on campus and beyond as global citizens and leaders.
Panelists: Dr. Cheryl Clarke, Lindsay Jeffers, Christian Fuscarino, Segev and Evuatar Kanik, Jaivon Lewis and Silismar Suriel.
3:45 – 3:55 p.m.: Break
3:55 – 4:00 p.m.: Welcome Remarks
Brian Sims, PA State Representative, athlete, and son of two Colonel parents
D1-Session 2
4:00 – 5:15 p.m.: Service or Servitude?
Jennifer Long and Chris Budin
Recently there has been more acceptance and positive policies for lesbians, gays and bisexual in the military and law enforcement. However, transgender service is still an unsafe space for many. For transgender, gender fluid and gender non-conforming persons who choose to serve is their future still promising?
Panelists: Lieutenant John Hayes, NJ State Police, Employment Equity; Police Officer Connor Johnson, Morristown Bureau of Police and James Credle; Vietnam Veteran and former Dean of Multiculturalism and Veteran Affairs at Rutgers-Newark.
5:15 – 5:30 p.m.: Break
D1-Session 3
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.: Virtual Happy Hour
Meet the Presenters and Panelists
LGBTQAI+ Trivia Contest with Prizes. All registered attendees are invited to participate and win Barnes and Nobel gift cards.
Day Two: Friday, February 26, 2021
D2-Session 1
8:30 – 9:00 a.m.: Day Two Welcome
Dr. Gloria Bachmann and Dean Mark S. Schuster
Tammy Snyder Murphy, The First Lady of New Jersey
Jonathan Holloway, President of Rutgers University
Enobong (Anna) Branch, Senior Vice President for Equity, Rutgers University
9:00 – 9:45 a.m.: Keynote Address and Opening Remarks
Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, Executive Board of the American Medical Association (AMA)
D2-Session 2
10:00 – 10:45 a.m: Regressive US Reproductive Policies versus “Beloved Care” for the LGBTQAI+ Community.
Dr. Juana Hutchinson-Colas and Dr. Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel
Dean Mutcherson will give a tight overview of recent challenges to reproductive rights in the US. The discussion will end on the hopeful advances of LGBTQAI+ Health Care and Wellness.
Panelists: Dean Kimberly Mutcherson, Rutgers-Camden, and Georgiann Davis
10:45 – 11:00 a.m.: Break
D2-Session 3
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: Community-based Affirmation Hormonal Therapy and Surgery: Perspectives from Clinicians and Advocates on Navigating the Challenges of Transgender Healthcare.
Jackie Baras and Dr. Jeremy Sinkin
This panel will explore the social, medical, and surgical gender-affirming process. We will discuss patient clinical treatments and implications for the patient’s, friends, family, and community.
Panelists: Dr. Richard Agag, Dr. Ian Marshall, and Shaan Williams, Rutgers-New Brunswick undergraduate.
D2-Session 4
12:15 – 1:30 p.m.: Contesting the Binary
Dorothy Crouch and Dr. Anne L. Koch
This panel presents three different individuals with various perspectives on what it means to “contest the binary”. Although each panelist has their own specific area of interest (bisexuality, Inter-sexuality, and transgender), the final conclusion will be strikingly similar.
Panelists: Jennifer Long, Paul Nocera, Dr. Georgiann Davis
D2-Session 5
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.: Lunch; Program: The Arts and Music as Medicine
Dean Mark Schuster Moderator, Dedication in Memory of Tom Sokolowski
Dr. Cheryl Clarke, Poetry Reading
Dr. Mary Rorro, Music and Art as Healing
D2-Session 6
2:30 – 3:45 p.m.: Holistic and Community-Based Mental Health: Partnering with Media
Dr. Francesca Maresca
The media, in all forms, is a powerful tool, creating spaces and amplifying voices that speak to mental health, activism, transgender issues, HIV/AIDS and the global pandemic
Panelists: Dean Perry N. Halkitis, Wil Vargas, Francesca Barjon, and Malcolm Neaum
3:45 – 4:00 p.m.: Break
D2-Session 7
4:00 to 5:00 p.m.: Wrap up and Capstone Q&A
Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, Dr. Gloria Bachmann, and Dean Mark Schuster
For those who can, especially persons currently employed, a suggested donation to the Rutgers University LGBTQIA+ Emergency Fund is greatly appreciated.
The Rutgers LGBTQAI+ Emergency Fund is for students that are homeless; housing or food insecure; or experiencing personal or domestic violence due to their identity and who(m) they chose to love.
Co-sponsors
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Asian American Cultural Center
- Center for Social Justice Education and LGBTQAI+ Communities
- Center for Latino Arts and Culture
- “C4” Cultural Center Collaborative, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Health Outreach, Promotion and Peer Education, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Honors College Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Journal of Inspiration and Writing (WHI)
- LGBTQAI+ Emergency Fund Rutgers University Camden, New Brunswick, and Newark
- Margery Somers Foster Center, Rutgers University – New Brunswick Libraries
- Office of Graduate Student Life, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Office of the Senior Vice President for Equity, Rutgers University
- Office of Title IX and Compliance, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Office of Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Rutgers University – Camden and New Brunswick
- Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Proud Gender Center of New Jersey
- Recreation, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Rutgers Global, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Rutgers Law School, Rutgers University – Camden
- Rutgers Libraries, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
- Student Centers and Activities, Rutgers University- New Brunswick
- Student Health and Wellness Counseling, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Student Health and Wellness Counseling Center, Rutgers – Newark
- The Zimmerli Museum
- Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
- Women’s Health Institute (WHI) RWJ
Coordinators
Dr. Gloria Bachmann and Dean Mark Schuster
Colloquium Steering Committee
- Richard Agag
- David L. Amico
- Chris Babu
- Jackie J. Baras
- Lauren Choi
- Cheryl Clarke
- Anne Cliadakis
- Geralyn Colvil
- James Credle
- Olivia Dahl
- Jamaul Davis
- Zoee D’Costa
- Dorothy Crouch
- Kayo Denda
- Holly Franz
- John Hayes
- Perry N. Halkitis
- Juana Hutchinson-Colas
- Lindsay Jeffers
- Connor Johnson
- Evyatar Kanik
- Anne L. Koch
- Katharine Little
- Ian Marshall
- Francesca Maresca
- Bianca Mayes
- Malcolm Neaum
- Amy Papi
- Jeremy Sinkin
- Ann Treadaway
The colloquium was made possible by a grant from the Rutgers University Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes, with support from medical faculty, staff, and multiple communities.
