(Excerpted from Valley Public Radio) Finding the perfect doctor can be a feat for anyone, but for LGBT people in rural places finding an understanding physician can sort of feel impossible.

In 2014 Visalia pediatrician Kathryn Hall got fed up. She sees her practice as welcoming to LGBT people, but she felt that conservative values and homophobia in Tulare County have kept many from receiving proper health care.

“Many of the physicians that I know are LGBT friendly, but patients don’t know that and are very afraid that they’re being judged,” Hall says.

That’s why she wanted to create a list of LGBT friendly doctors. To find them she sent out a survey to over 500 Tulare County doctors and got about 120 back. The survey asked a few basic questions like would you welcome LGBT people to your practice and would you be nice to this population of people. Most of the answers were yes, but so many never sent it back.

“I made the bar very, very low because we just didn’t get much education on LGBT health in medical school,” says Hall. “That is starting to change.”

For the full story, see "Finding LGBT Friendly Health Care Isn't So Easy In Rural California."

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