A new Collections Highlight is on display behind the Information Desk at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library: LGBTQ+ Health: Excerpts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer materials from the Library Collection.
Healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community has evolved dramatically from its early years, when being a member of that community was labeled as a mental illness and/or a danger to society.
As the gay rights movement gained traction, the AIDS crisis brought additional challenges, including inaction by the government and some healthcare providers. These challenges drove many advocacy groups and individuals to speak up for the human and civil rights of this population.
Despite these efforts, as well as increased acceptance of visibility of LGBTQ+ individuals and groups within society at large, challenges remained in the form of intolerance, microaggressions and barriers to healthcare access. With the recent politicization of LGBTQ+ issues generally, access to healthcare is again becoming more of a challenge.
This collection highlights some of Emory Library’s resources with titles including Affirmative Counseling for Transgender and Gender Diverse Clients, The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory & Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health, and Queering Public Health and Public Policy in the Deep South.
Homosaurus
When a resource is added to the library databases, catalogers choose subject headings to ensure that the material is correctly described and ultimately, findable. To improve description of historically marginalized communities in the Emory library catalog, Emory catalogers have adopted the use of the Homosaurus, a specialized vocabulary for describing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) materials. The use of Homosaurus’s inclusive terminology can help to mitigate the harm caused by outdated, inaccurate, or offensive terms.