Research into the experiences of people from LGBT communities has won De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) an award from campaign group Stonewall.
Academics at DMU were highly commended for the breadth and depth of the work produced at the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index Awards, held this week.
Professor Julie Fish (pictured above), Professor in social work and health inequalities and director of DMU’s Mary Seacole Centre, is researching whether being LGBT affects your treatment as a cancer patient.
She said: “I’d like to thank Stonewall for this prestigious award. I value it enormously.
“This award for LGBT research means a lot to me because it acknowledges the tough job of persuading research funders that LGBT people are a community worthy of study.
“I do research on the psychosocial aspects of cancer and there is a strong evidence that LGBT people are more likely to say that the doctor treated them as a set of symptoms rather than as a whole person.
“Recently a gay man with prostate cancer who was entering the last stages of his life went to hospital for pain management and as he approached the clinic desk the receptionist turned to her colleagues and said ‘that poof is here for his treatment’. He never went back.
“So when people talk about special rights for LGBT people what they fail to recognise is that we lack social rights including the right to health.”
Professor Fish said she was proud of DMU’s record in promoting LGBT rights and highlighted the recent success of a conference held at the university focusing on promoting multi-disciplinary LGBT research.
Posted on Friday 27 March 2015