DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAY, LESBIAN AND BISEXUAL FAMILY PHYSICIANS BYPATIENTS

Background: Discrimination against gay, lesbian and bisexual (GLB) pat ients by physicians is well known. Discrimination against GLB physicia ns by their colleagues and superiors is also well known and includes h arassment, denial of positions and refusal to refer patients to them. The purpose of this study was to identify and quantify the attitudes o f patients toward GLB physicians. Methods: Telephone interviews were c onducted with 500 randomly selected people living in a large urban Can adian city. Subjects were asked if they would refuse to see a GLB fami ly physician and, if so, to describe the reason why. They were then gi ven a choice of 6 reasons obtained from consultation with 10 GLB peopl e and 10 heterosexual people. Results: Of the 500 subjects 346 (69.2%) were reached and agreed to participate. Of the 346 respondents 41 (11 .8%) stated that they would refuse to see a GLB family physician. The 2 most common reasons for the discrimination (prevalence rate more tha n 50%) were that GLB physicians would be incompetent and the responden t would feel ''uncomfortable'' having a GLB physician. Although more m ale than female respondents discriminated against GLB physicians, the difference was not statistically significant. The proportion of male a nd female respondents who discriminated increased with age (p < 0.01). Conclusions: The observed prevalence of patient discrimination agains t GLB family I physicians is significant. The results suggest that the discrimination is based on emotional reasons and is not related to su ch factors as misinformation about STDs and fear of being thought of s exually. Therefore, educational efforts should be directed against gen eral perceptions of homosexuality rather than targeting specific medic al concerns.