Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Lurie Gender and Sex program receives Pritzker $500K matching gift
by Gretchen Rachel Hammond
2016-06-25

This article shared 2224 times since Sat Jun 25, 2016
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


According to co-director of Lurie Children's Hospital's Gender and Sex Development Program Rob Garofalo MD/MPH, the Midwest initiative offering a wide range of services for transgender and gender nonconforming youth began in 2013 with about a dozen patients.

"Last week we saw out 400th patient," he told Windy City Times. "We see about 15 new patients a month and we have a four-to-five month waiting list.

On June 23, the program announced that it had received a matching grant of $500,000 from transgender philanthropist and advocate Col. Jennifer Pritzker. The award challenges Garofalo and his team to raise $500,000 from the community which will then be doubled by Pritzker's donation.

It was Pritzker and her Tawani Foundation who was instrumental in providing seed money for yhe Gender and Sex Development Program three years ago.

"That was also a matching gift," Garofalo told Windy City Times. "At that point Lurie, did not go to the community to meet the match because they wanted to demonstrate their commitment to the program so it was done internally."

In a 2014 interview with Windy City Times, Garofalo described himself as a "dog with a bone" when it came to the idea of establishing the clinic—something that began to take shape as he was working with adolescent transgender women who were either exposed to or at risk of acquiring HIV.

He read a 2011 paper authored by Dr. Norman P. Spack, the co-director of the Disorders of Sexual Development and Gender Management Service (GeMS) clinic in Boston.

Garofalo sent the paper to Pritzker and convinced her that Chicago was in need of a clinic of its own. "This meant something to me," he said. "I was going to make this happen by hook or by crook."

With the seed money in place, Garofalo and his team were able form what he describes is the most comprehensive gender and sex development program in the United States.

"Every discipline is represented in a really comprehensive model," he said. "We have endocrinology, pediatrics, adolescent medicine, medical ethics, psychologists and psychiatrists. We even have surgeons at Lurie who are beginning to do some work in this area."

Yet Garofalo admitted that, when it launched, he had no idea that the demand for the services the program provides would be so tremendous.

"I never could have imagined how much of a need there was out there to have this kind of program," he said. "It takes me back to my early days of HIV work in the '80s. We are filling a need that, at least three years ago, no one else was doing."

"Honestly, more than any other grant I have ever received in my life, I feel like we hit the ball out of the park," he added. "So, at the end of the three-year period, we went back to Col. Pritzker and told her 'you helped us develop a center of excellence. Please help us take it to the next level'."

Pritzker agreed with one quid pro quo.

"She had enough confidence in us to agree," Garofalo said. "But she didn't want to involve just Lurie and Tawani. She wanted to garner support from the broader community because this is a population needing that support."

Garofalo described the award as "three-pronged."

"It allows us to provide clinical care and wrap-around services for uninsured and underinsured children and adolescents," he said. "It's not unusual for these services or medications not to be covered. The award allows us a great deal of flexibility to make sure that people don't fall through the cracks."

The second part of the award is designed to enhance the program's academic approach as a center of excellence.

"Because Jennifer [Pritzker] gave us the opportunity in 2013, we were extremely well-positioned to be part of the first National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded grant looking at long-term medical outcomes of the interventions on these children through the use of pubertal-blockers and cross-sex hormones," Garofalo said. "Because of Jennifer's generosity and foresight we were able to apply with Lurie, The Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, the University of California San Francisco and Boston Children's Hospital."


This article shared 2224 times since Sat Jun 25, 2016
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course
2024-03-18
Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

Almost 8% of U.S. residents identify as LGBTQ+
2024-03-16
The proportion of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ+ continues to increase. LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as LGBTQ+, according to the newest Gallup poll results that ...


Gay News

WORLD Leaked messages, Panama action, author dies at 32, Japan court, out athletes
2024-03-15
Hundreds of messages from an internal chat board for an international group of transgender health professionals were leaked in a report and framed as revealing serious health risks associated with gender-affirming care, including cancer, according to ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools
2024-03-15
In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


Gay News

College athletes sue NCAA over transgender policies
2024-03-15
Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among a group of college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on March 14, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing trans swimmer Lia Thomas ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition'
2024-03-15
Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

SPORTS Red Stars prepare to kick off NWSL season against Utah Royals
2024-03-15
It's been a busy winter for the Red Stars, and it's time to put their work to the test. Following a last place finish in the 2023 NWSL season, Chicago has had an active offseason transforming ...


Gay News

UK health service to stop routinely prescribing puberty blockers to minors
2024-03-14
NHS (National Health Service) England confirmed that children will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers at gender-identity clinics, the BBC reported. The decision came after a review found there was "not enough evidence" that they ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ people attacked by mobs in Greece
2024-03-14
Just weeks after a landmark law granted same-sex couples in Greece the right to marry, nearly 200 people dressed in black chased a transgender couple through the town square in Thessaloniki, the country's "second city" and ...


Gay News

One Roof Chicago launches youth-focused workforce development program
2024-03-14
One Roof Chicago (ORC) is set to launch its first training, education and job placement program for LGBTQ+ young adults in late spring. This Community Health Workers and Elder Care program is a part of ORC's ...


Gay News

Howard Brown experts discuss advocacy and allyship for Chicago's trans community
2024-03-14
By Alec Karam - Howard Brown Health's Trans & Gender Diverse People's Rights & Patient Care panel convened March 12 to discuss both resources for—and opportunities to provide allyship to—the city's trans and gender diverse communities. The event hos ...


Gay News

UPDATE: Nex Benedict's death ruled a suicide; family responds
2024-03-13
A medical examiner's report concluded that the cause of death of Oklahoma student Nex Benedict (he/they) was suicide, media reports confirmed. Benedict—a 16-year-old transgender student—died Feb. 8, a day after ...


Gay News

Howard Brown Health faces October trial if settlement isn't reached with union
2024-03-13
Howard Brown Health could go to trial over unfair labor practice allegations if the LGBTQ+ health center doesn't reach a settlement with its agreement soon. Chicago's regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed ...


Gay News

"X" gender marker now available on Illinois driver's licenses and state ID cards
2024-03-11
After several years of preparation, the Illinois Secretary of State's office is has been making the X gender designation available for non-binary residents and others not utilizing the M or F designations, since the beginning of ...


Gay News

Chicagoan continues fight against alleged transphobia at Orangetheory
2024-03-11
After allegedly dealing with transphobia at a Chicago Orangetheory beginning in 2018, Jes Favers du Shine is still holding out hope for the organization to take measures addressing those issues.� In 2020, Windy City Times reported ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.