A NEW organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) doctors and medical students in Ireland is to hold its first agm in Dublin next month.
Gay Doctors Ireland (GDI) was set up in December to provide an educational, professional and social support network for LGBT doctors working in the Irish health services.
Founder member, Dr Conor Malone of Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, explained that equivalent organisations were already running in the UK, Europe and the US and there was a real need for support for Irish LGBT doctors. He said it was not known how many LGBT doctors were currently working in Ireland and this was an issue GDI would have to address. The group has recruited 40 members through its website (gaydoctorsireland.ie) in the past month and there are many others involved with GDI who have not yet become members.
Dr Malone said: “I think in general LGBT professionals face similar issues across the board which they encounter in college and the workplace. For LGBT doctors, medicine has traditionally been a very conservative working environment, particularly in the hospitals.
“Medicine is so racially diverse, people are so integrated in other ways . . . it seems the last bastion of the old medical hierarchy is for LGBT doctors to be accepted. It is happening, very slowly but surely.”
Gay Doctors Ireland’s first agm will take place at 7pm on Saturday, May 8th in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8. For details or to register, go to gaydoctorsireland.ie
