by Sonya Seghal
The Kind Clinic is a low-cost sexual health clinic that focuses on making treatments such as PrEP, HRT, gender-affirming surgeries, and STI testing affordable and accessible to marginalized communities in the Austin and San Antonio areas. The Kind Clinic was founded in 2015, and since then has been dedicated to providing comprehensive sexual health and wellness to all, despite access to insurance. As stated on their website: “Kind Clinic strives to deliver measurable impact for its community by providing state-of-the-art sexual health services to all people, regardless of race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation, without judgement or stigma.”
Though COVID-19 interrupted my semester of interning with the Kind Clinic, I learned so much and developed great skills in my time there! When I first began, I assembled and took inventory for sexual safety kits. I literally counted tens of thousands of condoms in my time there, and yes, it was funny, but also showed me how many small details need to be completed in order to provide services such as free testing and safety kits to the public. Also fun: realizing how many things about reproductive justice and sexual health I myself didn’t know, even as a fourth year student in a women’s and gender studies program! I appreciated the gender inclusivity of the sexual safety kits, so that people of all gender and sexual orientation had their sexual safety considered.
One of my favorite events to table at with the Kind Clinic was Frida Friday’s third anniversary and International Women’s Day event. There were beautiful performances by various women of color, and the most beautiful art pieces, food, and clothing being sold by vendors. This was truly a space created for the betterment and peace of women of color, queer people, and other marginalized communities. I felt so at home. While at the event, the Kind Clinic would do free STI testing, and hand out sexual safety kits and other goodies. It felt amazing to help the community in some direct way, and I had so much fun doing so! I also got to meet so many interesting people who were either working other booths or were interested in Kind Clinic services; I truly felt like the Kind Clinic was connected and ingrained with the people they care to help. In fact, I have done work with the Kind Clinic before this internship when working with groups such as QTPOCA. In the past, QTPOCA has invited the Kind Clinic to conduct STI testing and tables at UT during our annual Bloq Party. Along with this, the Kind Clinic regularly does STI testing in UT’s Gender and Sexuality Center every Tuesday. They are constantly thinking of new ways to help more people in the central Texas area.
I think my favorite part about interning at the Kind Clinic was the office environment and work dynamic. People were truly kind. I had the most understanding and uplifting co-workers, and the Kind Clinic was a positive, unique, and entertaining spaces. I felt like I was finally beginning to be introduced to the broader LGBT+ scene in Austin beyond UT students, and it was amazing to see how bright and lively this scene currently is as a soon-to-be graduate. I feel as though some of the friends I made in my time at the Kind Clinic will be lifelong connections throughout my life. I remember my first staff meeting with the Kind Clinic and their parent organization, Texas Health Action. The staff talked about achievements, developments, and plans for the future. At the end of the meeting there was a small birthday celebration. I felt immense pride that I was interning at such an amazing place. It made me think about about how much I would enjoy continuing this work full time.
My biggest realization from this internship was realizing how vital sexual health education, treatment, and access was. As we all know, Texas’ sexual health education is (worse than) subpar, and many people do not understand the importance of maintaining sexually healthy lives. There is still so much work to be done around sexual health access and reproductive justice in Texas, but the Kind Clinic offers a vital service that is utilized by many of my friends and family, who need affordable gender-affirming and sexual health care.
I know that the Kind Clinic is still offering services to the Central Texas areas despite the coronavirus pandemic, though mostly virtually at this point. I remember at that first staff meeting I attended, they showed us a cute LGBT-inspired graphic design that illustrated safety precautions to take towards the coronavirus. Though at the time we did not realize the severity of the pandemic, I admire how forward thinking and caring the administration was towards caring for its staff and still providing a necessary service to the public. I hope that one day I can work with the Kind Clinic again in some capacity, and could not have chosen a better internship to close off my fourth year at UT.
Hello, my name is Sonya Sehgal! I am a fourth year Womens and Gender Studies student at the University of Texas at Austin. I am currently among the first group of students to undertake UT’s five year combined MA-BA program. Along with this, I am the current director for the Queer Trans People of Color Agencies at the UT and am about to begin an internship with the Sadie Nash Leadership Institute in New York City. Previously I have worked as a First Year Interest Group Mentor at UT and have been an Intern with the Equal Asia Foundation in Bangkok. The common theme here is my focus on providing support to LGBT+ and marginalized youth, not just in Austin but globally. I believe investing time and care into our communities is the first step towards building a better future, and am thankful for how I have been able to do that through the university internship program. As is the goal of the University of Texas at Austin: “what starts here changes the world.”
