Rae Blazin supports expanded, codified DOHMH LGBTQ resource map

Hi, my name is Rae Blazin.

My pronouns are they, them.

I have served as a public health professional for the city and social services, serving the LGBTQ and unhoused community before, but I am testifying today in a personal capacity, and the views expressed are my own regarding Intro 949.

An LGBTQ resource map does exist at DUHMH.

This was addressed earlier.

However, not only will this particular bill codify and protect its existence, which is necessary in times in which our access to our own health is becoming more and more difficult to access across the country,

but it also leaves room for greater granularity when it comes to reliable information about individual providers.

This map, becoming a more concrete and expanded resource, has the potential to be a life-saving mechanism by increasing accessibility through readily available information.

As somebody who recently had their provider leave their practice at NYU Langone, at a clinic that was previously an all-queer local clinic that had been bought out by NYU,

knowing I was a patient in a practice where some providers would be supportive of my identity and work with me to provide me with specialty knowledge about my own health, and that some would not be suited for that endeavor, was anxiety-inducing and made me reticent to seek care

and resulted in the disruption of my care for both ordinary wellness and for chronic conditions.

I had to rely on word of mouth and quietly speaking to other staff members in the hallways to get

gather office opinion on who would be outfitted to respectfully tend to my health care needs for a long-term, reliable, and culturally responsive provider to a queer and transgender person.

Having a map expanded with the weight of DOHMH and the city's authority and consideration of standards behind it, and with care and regard for provider safety in turn,

would make the inevitable repeat of that situation, because it will happen again to me at some point.

Sooner, I hope later.

But it will make that experience a lot smoother and more accessible and reduce meaningful barriers.

This can also potentially reduce siloing of care to specific institutions, many of which are Manhattan-based that are already listed, who strain to serve the sheer number of people who require safer services and provide an invaluable resource to many other New Yorkers.

There is also, I do want to put forward for consideration the fact that the bill as it stands does not have a time span indicated on what would be a reasonable implementation time on that map.

And given that it is unclear if the existing map is being amended or if a new one is being created, I do think a lifetime on that, what that can look like would be appropriate.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you for that.