Bizarre.

That is the only way to describe it.  Bizarre.  I am currently taking my 4 week, mandatory "Capstone" course.  It is an amalgamation of all sorts of different things they think they should teach us before we go.  Sort of a last ditch effort.  To be fair, there have been some really great lectures/presentations so far.

But today we had a class that just beat them all.  It was a thoroughly uncomfortable experience.

The class was on LGBT issues in medicine.  LGBT is the abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered.  So, we start off with a group activity, with different sections of the room discussing issues specific to each group.  Of course, we brought up the notion of fear of discrimination, specific education regarding STD transmission, etc.  While we aren't old, seasoned doctors, we have all been trained in an era when LGBT lifestyles aren't unheard of, and have had exposure.

But apparently the instructor had an agenda, and a healthy set of assumptions about us.  From the get go, it was obvious that she had a chip on her shoulder.  The haughty, passive/aggressive manner in which she addressed some of the comments and questions made it evident from the beginning.  She was on a mission.

Apparently that mission was to assume and assert we were all insensitive troglodytes.

Throughout the course of the presentation she constantly asserted that we needed to treat LGBT patients as "different".  On the other hand, we asserted that we should treat them the same: as patients.  If their sexual preference was germane to their visit, we would address it.  If not, there was no reason to perseverate.  In other words, we didn't want to define them by their sexual preference, but the person who was there to teach us to be sensitive to their "issues" was positive we needed to define them by their sexual preference.

She assumed that we would be uncomfortable by a patient's sexuality if it wasn't good old vanilla heterosexuality.  She assumed that none of us had the insight to ask our patients if they have sex with men, women or both.  We all do, we have been trained to NOT assume, and just ask the patients and let them answer.  She asserted that there were specific issues we needed to address with an LGBT patient that we wouldn't with a heterosexual patient.  When we asked what those issues we would need to address were, she just clammed up and informed us she wasn't there to discuss biology.

In the end, she stopped her presentation short, and pretty much stormed out of the room.  Simply because we refused to be prejudiced in the way she thought we should be.  Instead of being relieved that, as a group, we are pretty comfortable in dealing with LGBT patients, she chose to be upset that her assumptions about us were incorrect.

Bizarre.