Brandon Benton grew up in West Virginia without a medical provider who understood LGBTQ health care. Today, he is training to be the nurse practitioner he wishes he had in his youth.
“Fifteen, 20 years ago, nobody was asking me the questions that I didn’t have words for at the time, to name what I was going through or what I was feeling,” he said.
Last fall, Benton relocated to New York for Callen-Lorde’s Keith Haring Fellowship program for nurse practitioners. The country’s oldest LGBTQ healthcare clinic is training postgraduates in HIV treatment, alternative insemination options and transition care for transgender patients. The fellowship’s organizers hope their graduates can then practice and teach LGBTQ health care throughout the country, especially in LGBTQ health deserts.
“Providers leave the program and create that outward ripple effect, creating access to LGBTQ+ care wherever they go,” said Catherine Trossello, the fellowship’s director.
Watch the video above to learn more about this unique healthcare training program. For more details, visit Callen-Lorde.org.
