by Denise Cicuto, L.Ac.
This is a scary time for many members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the United States. Under the current government, many rights of the trans and the larger queer community are being challenged or taken away.
The history of queer people has been erased from National Park Service websites. Trans people cannot renew their passports with their correct gender on them. “X” has been removed as a choice for genderqueer and nonbinary people. Only “M” and “F” are accepted ‘sex markers’ under Executive Order 14168. Many LGBTQIA+ people have been leaving or trying to leave the country since January of 2025.
In this article, I’ll discuss the experiences of some queer community members and allies and examples of how we can support them now, using our skills as compassionate acupuncturists, healthcare practitioners, and community members. It’s important to say that despite doing a lot of outreach, it was difficult to find people who were willing to be interviewed for this article. That speaks a lot to the fear and anxiety people have at this moment in our history.
“One of the best resistances I can do as a trans person is to just continue to be normal and have a life.” - Charlie
Charlie (a pseudonym) is a 22-year-old trans man who agreed to speak with me about his experience living under the current conditions in the United States. Charlie is also bisexual, on the ACE spectrum, and aromantic. He currently lives in rural Pennsylvania with his queer platonic life partner. Charlie mentions all those descriptors because many people don’t know what they are, and one of the most important ways for him to feel supported by healthcare practitioners is for them to understand terminology that trans and gay people use every day.
“It's a place where I wanna walk in and feel safe and comfortable and understood.” - Charlie
Despite having a full beard, Charlie has been misgendered at a physical therapist’s office because the intake forms only asked for biological sex, not gender identity. The receptionist in the office finally asked him “ ‘Are you a woman? Because it says female on your paperwork.’ And he said, ‘No, I'm a trans man.’ ” His general practitioner wasn’t familiar with dosages for testosterone because he had only previously prescribed it for cis-gendered men.
Charlie encourages practitioners to not be afraid to ask their patients how they want to be addressed and which pronouns to use with them. He says, “you can treat me as a man and acknowledge that I am a man while also acknowledging that I as a trans person have different needs than your cis male patients.”
Problems like this are why some of Charlie’s friends don’t go to the doctor very often. He has fibromyalgia and sees his doctor regularly. Charlie and his partner will be moving to Pittsburgh soon where he is looking forward to a more diverse community, and more inclusive healthcare.
A difficult issue for many queer people, including Charlie, is that many of our friends are leaving the country because of the current administration’s actively hostile policies towards trans people. Charlie’s only trans friend in his rural town is moving to Canada with her partner. When asked if Charlie would consider leaving the country, he said “I'm gonna stick it out and believe that people are good and things are gonna get better. And, I don't always like this country, but I like my family who live here, so I wanna be near them.”
Healers and helpers
Dr. S. Hunter Thompson is an acupuncturist and Associate Professor in Maryland. Hunter says, “A number of my queer patients are expressing huge fear about their safety and what this administration is planning in the next few years. Some are looking at how to move to another country.”
When talking about his personal situation, Hunter says, "I'm trans and have incredible fear of what would happen if, for example, I went to a protest and was detained by ICE or CBP [US Customs and Border Protection]. I pass well so I'm not necessarily afraid to walk around my community yet.”
To support his patients, Hunter does Shen level treatments with acupuncture and herbal medicine. Examples of herbal formulas he regularly prescribes are Jia Wei Xiao Yao San and An Shen Ding Zhi Wan, depending on the person, and their pattern presentation.
Hunter also teaches an online continuing education class called Ethics in Treating the Trans Patient.
Susan Meyers lives in Tampa, Florida and shared some of the self and community care she has been doing. She is studying TCM in her retirement and is a member of A New Possibility, an online community of laypeople, holistic practitioners and Alchemical Healers. She says “it helps me grow and encourages new ways of thinking in the world and I think helped me to become a better community citizen.”
Susan does daily stretching to “encourage somatic release so I don't hold onto the strife that we are all feeling.” She says her breathwork & meditation practice “feels like a lifeline sometimes.” Some of her other internal self-care practices include acupressure, walking, and qigong.
Susan also believes in outward expression of care to not just the queer but to the larger, intersectional community. This includes going to weekly dinners with friends to check in, especially with those who might seem more withdrawn. She volunteers at the St. Petersburg food bank, which serves the queer community, many of whom have recently lost jobs. Susan also volunteers at her community garden and says “it grounds me and reminds me how there are still wonderful things about the world. Its effects keep me showing up in community for them, for my neighbors and for the greater community around me to be all I can be.”
Susan encourages people to help their friends and neighbors and “Go beyond yourself. The more you give and serve, the more you receive.”
Conclusion
Each patient who comes through our doors has different physical, emotional, and Shen / spirit level responses that need tending. As acupuncturists and healers, we use both our clinical experience and our hearts to support our patients to the best of our ability during such a difficult time.
We can encourage our patients to do self-care practices such as meditation, breathwork, and qigong to ground and center them. We can check in and listen to our patients and community members to see what kind of care they need.
Finally, we can look to the queer community and see hope and resilience. As Charlie says, "I'm not pretending that everything's sunshine and rainbows, and I do get very scared and anxious some days. But I try to still look at it like, ‘Well, people have tried to take away our rights before, and they've done it, and then we won 'em back, and we're still here.’ 'Cause there's never gonna stop being queer people.”
I want to thank Charlie, Hunter, and Susan for agreeing to be interviewed for this article.
Resources
- https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/confronting-the-rainbow-panic/
- https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/passport-help/sex-marker.html
- https://community.anewpossibility.com/plans/1893359?bundle_token=dbfc4ab4f861fba3277842800af24b93&utm_source=manual
- https://www.mayway.com/blogs/articles/inclusion-in-your-practice
- https://www.mayway.com/blogs/articles/bisexual-and-pansexual-health-inclusivity
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https://www.mayway.com/blogs/articles/serving-the-lgbtq-community
- Photo by Lisett Kruusimäe.
