"Every day, and usually unconsciously, I carry around fear that I’ll be judged for my sexual orientation. This fear has affected my experience of medical training, and I suspect I’m not alone. Trainees in your own hospital may feel the same way. Before every rotation in medical school, I was anxious. Would my new attendings judge me for being gay? Would it affect my grade?"

Having grown up surrounded by homophobia, a gay resident continues to carry around fear that he’ll be judged for his sexual orientation. But some attending physicians and residents have done small things that have made him feel more at ease.

A PDF of this Perspective article in the New England Journal of Medicine by McLean psychiatry resident Jack L. Turban can be accessed online here with your HarvardKey.