Showing Up: LGBTQ+ Physicians on Identity, Care & Community - A Women in Medicine Pride Month Webinar | REcap | 6.10.2026
This June, Women in Medicine® brought together two physician leaders for an honest, celebratory, and deeply personal conversation about what it means to practice medicine - and live fully - as an LGBTQ+ provider.
The discussion featured Dr. Jailyn Avila, MD, an emergency physician, ultrasound educator, and gender-affirming healthcare advocate practicing in California, and Dr. Jessica Bunin, MD, FACP, FCCM, a psychiatrist, critical care intensivist, and co-founder of All Levels Leadership who retired as a Colonel after three decades of military service. Together, they brought lived experience, clinical expertise, and remarkable candor to a conversation the medical community needs to keep having.
Five key takeaways from the discussion:
✨ Visibility is medicine. Both doctors shared how wearing a small signal of identity - a rainbow pin, pride socks, a colorful watchband - can instantly lower another person's heart rate and signal safety. Dr. Avila noted that queer people notice these things immediately: "We notice. We notice those things." Dr. Bunin described going out of her way to mention her wife in every public talk and presentation. "You never know whose life you're going to change by doing that," she said. A student once left a note on her desk: "I never thought in a military population I would hear someone mention that they were gay in a presentation, and it made my day."
✨ The weight of concealment is real, and it takes a toll. LGBTQ+ physicians carry a secondary layer of mental work that their peers often don't see: deciding dozens of times a day whether to correct a pronoun, disclose a spouse, or stay silent. Dr. Bunin described it as "a lot of additional cognitive load" on top of an already demanding clinical environment. Dr. Avila was even more direct, sharing that she does not think she would have survived more than a few years had she not been able to transition. "Hiding that part of me was so smothering and so oppressive. It painted everything - my family, my friends, my work colleagues, my patients." For Dr. Bunin, coming out was nearly an immediate lifting of the depression she had carried for years.
✨ Patients delay care because they fear being disrespected, and the consequences can be life-threatening. Research shows that up to 50% of LGBTQ+ patients avoid seeking care, even when symptoms may be serious, due to past experiences of discrimination. Dr. Avila described "trans broken arm syndrome": when a patient presents with one issue, and the clinical team fixates on their gender identity instead. She shared the story of Tyra Hunter, a trans woman whose death in an emergency setting was directly tied to provider refusal and neglect, and uses it in her teaching with residents. "When we hear those stories, and then we have crushing chest pain, and we come into the emergency department, we're scared that we're going to be ignored and die." Practical tools matter: using a patient's chosen name in the EMR, introducing your own pronouns without requiring a response, mirroring the language patients use for themselves. As Dr. Avila put it, "I don't ask what are your preferred pronouns. I just ask, what are your pronouns? Because it's more validating that way."
✨ Authentic leadership changes culture from the inside. Dr. Avila spoke about the power of calling people in rather than calling people out, and of approaching most harmful behavior as stemming from ignorance rather than malice. She regularly gives lectures to emergency medicine residents that start with the basics: what does queer mean, what are the differences between identities, why does language matter. "Sometimes just giving that education to people is the thing that addresses it." Dr. Bunin emphasized that leaders need to go first, modeling vulnerability so that queer physicians don't have to carry that labor alone. She also named what doesn't work: institutions that celebrate LGBTQ+ health only in June, climate surveys that score in the 95th percentile while an entire population is quietly being harmed, and support systems routed through offices that LGBTQ+ folks may never feel safe entering.
✨ Community sustains us. Whether it is an LGBTQ+ medical organization, a trusted colleague, or simply finding someone in the room wearing a rainbow lanyard, connection is what makes it possible to keep going. Dr. Bunin and Dr. Avila first met because of Dr. Bunin's rainbow socks. Dr. Avila recommends following queer providers and content creators on social media to build understanding and empathy outside formal training. And for anyone who is struggling: "It gets better," said Dr. Bunin. "I really want to say that it does get better. Every day, it gets better."
Thank you to Dr. Jailyn Avila and Dr. Jessica Bunin for showing up as your full selves, sharing your stories with such courage and warmth, and reminding all of us that medicine is better when every voice is in the room.
Women in Medicine® is committed to holding space for these conversations not only in June, but throughout the year.
Learn more and access resources from these WIMBassadors:
Dr. Jailyn Avila | Jaiyln Avila
Dr. Jess Bunin | All Levels Leadership
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