By Alice Pettway
“It’s hard to know who you can trust.”
Those are the words of a 26-year-old gay student at a U.S medical school who participated in a Stanford University School of Medicine study examining the experiences of sexual and gender minority medical students. In particular, the survey focused on the barriers these students face when coming out to their colleagues and professors.
The results of the study are alarming. Sixty percent of students who reported a gender minority identity said they were not “out” at their medical school. Lack of support and fear of discrimination were large factors in these students’ decisions to keep their sexual identity private. The numbers aren’t any better for students who reported a sexual minority identity; 53.9 percent of students who identified as bisexual and 92 percent of those who identified as questioning reported that they were not “out” at school.