Reflecting on Pride

By: Monica Patten, MD PGY3

This is a special edition blog post presented in partnership with the Association of Out Surgeons & Allies (AOSA) in celebration of Pride Month.

Happy Pride Month to all who celebrate. Pride is rightfully named. As defined by Oxford ⁹, “pride” is a consciousness of one’s own dignity and self-respect. This definition helps remind us why June brings such joy, visibility, and community for so many of us. As a member of the community and a surgical trainee, I have felt nothing but acceptance for who I am throughout my training. I know this is certainly not the experience all LGBTQ+ trainees share, but I am deeply grateful for the warmth of this community and our allies, and for the ways that medicine continues to work towards inclusion. But, to truly reflect on what Pride means this month, we can’t celebrate without recognizing the fear that so much of the LGBTQ+ community is facing. Pride has always coexisted with oppression, and unfortunately this year is no exception.

The political climate of the past eighteen months has brought a wave of legislative and administrative changes with real clinical consequences for LGBTQ+ patients and providers alike. Over 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced across the United States in 2025 alone.¹ The rollback of Section 1557 nondiscrimination protections has removed explicit federal safeguards for LGBTQ+ patients in Medicaid coverage and insurance benefit decisions.² At least 26 states have enacted bans on gender-affirming care, treatment that the AMA, WHO, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and numerous other major medical organizations recognize as the evidence-based standard of care for gender dysphoria.¹ Approximately 38% of transgender youth between the ages of 13 and 17 now live in states where this care is illegal.³ Some states with active bans have documented as high as a 72% increase in suicide attempt rates among transgender youth.⁴ These policies are impacting our patients medical care and health in significant ways.

Research funding has also been negatively affected in many ways. After taking office in January 2025, an executive order declaring the recognition of only two genders and halting government-led DEI initiatives was signed by President Trump. The fallout included the cancellation of 669 NIH-funded grants, totaling over $800 million, nearly 50% of these were related to LGBTQ+ health.⁵ This included a large-scale oncologic study examining how to better collect sexual orientation and gender identity data in order to address disparities in cancer care settings.⁵ But this wasn’t just a funding freeze. Scientists working for the CDC were subsequently directed to retract or pause submission of publications containing terms like “transgender”, “LGBT”, “gender”, and even “pregnant people”.⁶ Many can understand the feeling that none of this makes sense in order to take the best care of patients.

The downstream effects will reach our training programs: medical students and residents are not going to feel more empowered to engage with gender identity in clinical conversations or research when they aren’t sure what the professional impacts may be. We are shaping a generation of surgeons in a climate of institutional silence about the very patients they will serve. Just as importantly, for LGBTQ+ surgeons and trainees, these federal-level changes compound what was already a difficult environment. A study published in JAMA Surgery in 2022 found that 59.2% of LGBTQ+ surgical residents reported experiencing discrimination, 47.5% experienced harassment, and 74.8% reported bullying.⁷ Furthermore, LGBTQ+ surgical trainees were twice as likely to consider leaving their residency programs.⁷ The current political climate does not make navigating our personal or professional lives any easier, and unfortunately, particularly for an older generation of LGBTQ+ individuals, this is not a new experience. Many of us know that pride celebrations exist as a result of the fight against oppression.

On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, as they had done to countless LGBTQ+ establishments before. This time, the patrons, many of them transgender women of color and drag queens, the community’s most vulnerable and most visible, fought back. The uprising lasted six days and became, as the Library of Congress describes it, a moment that “fundamentally changed the nature of LGBTQ+ activism in the United States.”⁸ The first Pride March was held exactly one year later on its anniversary. What we now celebrate in June was born directly from that resistance.

Neither that history nor the present policy landscape can diminish the joy of this month. If anything, they deepen it. The people who protested at Stonewall Inn were not fighting for the right to have a parade, they were fighting for the right to exist without fear. The fact that so many of us can celebrate openly today is a testament to their courage, and  the fact that the fight is not finished requires us to harness that same courage today. We must continue to fight oppression, whether it shows up in our research, our ability to care for our patients, or the environment we create for our students and residents during this time.

To my LGBTQ+ colleagues and trainees: you are seen, and your presence in medicine and surgery matters. To our allies, thank you; for the rainbow pin, for using the right pronouns, for the space you hold. This June, we must remember that the joy of Pride month and the work needed to improve the house of medicine, continue together.

Happy Pride. 🏳️‍🌈

Monica Patten, MD, is a PGY-3 general surgery resident at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder and received her undergraduate degree in integrative physiology. She completed her medical education at the University of Colorado School of Medicine before matching into general surgery residency. In addition to the pursuit of a career in trauma surgery and critical care, Monica is passionate about engaging in policy and advocacy work in order to improve the health of her community and the patients she serves.

References

1. American College of Physicians. Attacks on Gender-Affirming and Transgender Health Care. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.acponline.org/advocacy/state-health-policy/attacks-on-gender-affirming-and-transgender-health-care
2. 42 U.S.C. §18116 (2020).
3. Human Rights Campaign. Map: Attacks on Gender Affirming Care by State. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.hrc.org/resources/attacks-on-gender-affirming-care-by-state-map
4. San Francisco Community Health Center. The American Crisis in Gender-Affirming Care Access – Policy Brief, 2025. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.sfcommunityhealth.org/gamc-policy-brief-2025
5. ASCO Post. How the Elimination of Federal Gender-Related Grants and DEI Programs Is Impacting LGBTQ+ Health Research. June 10, 2025. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://ascopost.com/issues/june-10-2025/how-the-elimination-of-federal-gender-related-grants-and-dei-programs-is-impacting-lgbtqplus-health-research/
6. Clark J, Abbasi K. Medical journal editors must resist CDC order and anti-gender ideology. BMJ. 2025;388:r253. doi:10.1136/bmj.r253
7. Heiderscheit EA, Schlick CJR, Ellis RJ, et al. Experiences of LGBTQ+ Residents in US General Surgery Training Programs. JAMA Surg. 2022;157(1):23-32. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2021.5246
8. Library of Congress. Today in History – June 28: The Stonewall Uprising. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-28/
9. Oxford University Press. Pride. In: Oxford English Dictionary. Published 2026. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/pride_n1