'Unlike Vancouver … here there's nothing': imagined geographies of idealized health care for LGBTQ women. Issue 7 (2nd July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baker, Kelly; Beagan, Brenda
• Is Part Of: Gender, place and culture. Volume 23:Issue 7(2016)
• Page Start: 927
• Page End: 940
• Publication Date: 2016-07-02
• Subjects: LGBTQ health -- women's health -- place -- health care expectations -- health inequality -- health care access; Salud LGBTQ -- salud de las mujeres -- lugar -- expectativas sobre el sistema de salud -- desigualdad en la salud -- acceso al sistema de salud; LGBTQ的健康 -- 女性健康 -- 地方 -- 健康照料之期望 -- 健康不均等 -- 健康照料的取得; Human geography -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Periodicals; Géographie féministe -- Périodiques; 305.305
• DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2015.1073694
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-369X

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores imagined geographies of health care among Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) women in Halifax and Vancouver. In expressing the possibilities and limitations of accessing care, participants frame their own experiences through spatialized narratives of how LGBTQ people are thought to be treated elsewhere. Participants' explicit connections and distinctions between Halifax and Vancouver gave insight into how their perceived difficulties in one health care context are sometimes framed by imagining more ease in accessing care in the other. We explore here the implications of these imagined, idealized spaces, which may set up false expectations that things are always better elsewhere. We reveal imagined geographies and senses of place as highly relevant features in LGBTQ women's accounts of experiences with and access to health care and expand conventional arguments about physical access to care.