LA 329, our spring semester project preparatory course, is easily the smallest class I have had at UT, with four undergraduate students, our graduate TA, and lead faculty mentor in attendance. The seminar-style class is essentially a three-hour long discussion, creating a space for engaging conversations about papers, documentaries, and news that converge on a broader narrative of gender and sexuality in India.
Among the books read and films watched in the course include Something Like a War, A. Revati’s The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story, Tales of Night Fairies, and excerpts from Chaitanya Lakkimsetti’s Legalizing Sex: Sexual Minorities, AIDS and Citizenship in India. These are diverse accounts of LGBTQ+ identity that collectively address a recurring theme: healthcare is intrinsically intersectional. Equity factors such as income, natural and built environments, availability of care services, and experiences of minority stress, all part of the social determinants umbrella term, have profound implications on health outcomes, especially among the urban poor population. Increased vulnerability to police violence without proper reporting infrastructure and justice reforms in place exacerbate the power gaps and voicelessness that fuel existing stigma, sexism, and oppression.
These are conditions that point to the larger inaccessibility of the patient empowerment model, one that advocates for patients and their needs. Our readings in class have demonstrated how hierarchical the physician structure can be in terms of representing interactions between socially respected and socially marginalized communities in discussions about health. The clinic is a space of vulnerability, and these complex dynamics highlight the importance of actively including social care into the healthcare delivery system.