LGBTQ+-Affirming Care Versus LGBTQ+ Inclusivity

When I was 19 years old, I sought help. I remember sitting in my mother’s kitchen and typing into an internet search engine “Gay men’s rehab” and clicking on the first link that appeared. When selecting a substance abuse treatment center, my physical safety as a queer person was obviously paramount, therein finding an accepting therapeutic environment was imperative. When I arrived at the treatment center, I was surprised to discover that I was one of three out queer people in a large treatment facility full of sixty heterosexual, cisgendered men. In that environment and at that age, I immediately shut down; it felt like high school all over again. It felt like I was being exposed to an identical environment as the one I started using drugs in when I was 13 years old. In short, the environment was not conducive to me feeling understood, accepted, nor celebrated. Seven years would pass before I would cobble together more than six months sober.