ATHENS, Ohio — Over 100 people attended Equitas Health’s first annual Gender-Affirming Fall Fest last week, which connected LGBTQ+ southeast Ohioans with legal support, healthcare and other resources.
This was the first such event hosted by the LGBTQ+-focused healthcare provider amid a recent and ongoing expansion of its services in the Athens area.
“We wanted to offer this event to basically act as a one-stop shop for a wide variety of services,” said Emilee Hemler, a prevention health navigator with Equitas. “That’s just kind of a way to offer support and a place to build community.”
At the event, which took place at the Athens Community Center, Equitas offered a free legal clinic to help those in the process of changing their legal names and gender-markers; free healthcare services including testing for sexually transmitted infections and connection to the HIV-prevention drug PrEP; free haircuts; and a free clothing closet.
Ada-Jane Gray and Malin I. attended the event together, primarily for the free legal clinic.
Malin, who declined to give their last name, had been thinking about pursuing legal document changes for about a year but had not begun the process “because there’s so much paperwork.”
The free legal clinic prompted Malin to move forward. “Besides, having a notary on-site, somebody who could answer the questions in an informed way, being a lawyer, was excellent,” Malin said.
Malin and Gray hung around the event after the legal clinic, enjoying the atmosphere.
“These events have been important to me, because I don’t really come from a really queer-friendly background, so being able to be at these events that are very supportive of who I am, makes me feel more comfortable with myself and interacting with the public,” Gray said.
Malin said, “I’ve enjoyed kind of bopping around dancing — just, you know, here and there — because nobody’s going to judge me for it; nobody’s gonna judge me for any of this, which is awesome. … It’s such a welcoming environment. It’s like a big hug.”
Michael Bart, also known as DJ Barticus, DJ-ed the event. Bart tried to “keep the vibes up,” focusing on LGBTQ+ artists and themes, as well as other “really fun music,” he said.
Rose, an Athens resident, got a free haircut at the event. “I love how many people came out here,” Rose said. “I think it’s an awesome event.”
The haircuts, legal clinic and medical van were all available to attendees on a first-come, first-serve basis, and were entirely booked up throughout the day, Hemler said. The event demonstrated, “If we bring it here, folks will come,” Hemler said. “Basically, we’ve just got to get here. So that’s the goal.”
Columbus-based Equitas has a regional office at 8 West Stimson Ave. in Athens. The office offers more limited services compared to the provider’s full medical centers in larger cities throughout the state.
“We’re a small team that’s trying to offer as many services as we can, and those have expanded in the time that I’ve been here,” said Hemler, who has worked at the Athens Equitas location for about three years.
The expansion has included more comprehensive STI-testing services as well as an expansion of the local mental health and recovery team from one therapist to three, Hemler said. The Athens location also offers advocacy for people living with HIV and connections to PrEP, according to its website.
Southeast Ohio residents can connect with Equitas’s services by calling the Athens location at (740) 331-4165. Ward Bryson will generally answer the phone.
“They call, I give them a very friendly greeting — I’m just myself; I give my pronouns, I create space for them to give their pronouns if they would like to, and I just ask them, how can we help them?” Bryson said. “We’re here to help you with whatever you need, even if we can’t provide it. We will point you somewhere.”
Hemler said Equitas will continue expanding its services in the Athens area, including more regular visits by the provider’s medical bus, which made its first appearance in Athens at the fall fest. Hemler hopes the bus will return to Athens at least one to two times per month in 2024, she said, although the bus’s schedule for next year has not yet been set.
Aaron Wamsley, southeast prevention programs manager with Equitas, worked outside the medical bus throughout the event, and said the bus held about 13 appointments throughout the day.
“We’ve seen everything from HIV testing, to getting people connected to PrEP and doing labs on that, but also helping people get connected to hormone replacement therapy,” Wamsley said.
Hemler said the bus can also offer more generalized medical care.
Wamsley said Equitas’s services can make an impact here as a provider focused on LGBTQ+ Ohioans, due to the “stigma that perpetuates over medical health care.”
“The need of this is dire,” Wamsley added. “It’s very important to start making these services accessible to the people who need them.”
Equitas emphasizes a “welcoming healthcare home for everyone, and for all parts of who folks are,” Hemler said.
Bryson said that in southeast Ohio, “There’s a scarcity, there’s a distance, there’s a remoteness that makes it difficult for people to access services. I think for trans and nonbinary queer folks out here, that is especially felt, because even when services are accessible to a cis person, maybe they’re not as accessible to a trans person.
“Literacy about gender and pronouns — and just things that are very basic to trans wellbeing — are not there at a lot of organizations around here,” Bryson said. “And having a healthcare home that is focused on those things and aware of those things, and wants people to feel welcome and whole and seen is just — I want to say very important, but it’s also very baseline.”
Hemler said, “All it takes is one bad experience for someone to never go back to a provider. If someone goes somewhere and is misgendered, that could totally disrupt that person’s ability to get care moving forward. They may never feel comfortable going back to that provider again. And, if that’s the only provider in their area that they can see, then what do they do?
“We really want to fill that gap and to make sure that … a patient feels comfortable talking to their doctor about sex or their gender journey, or any of that,” Hemler said.
Other local organizations had tables at the event, including the Ohio University LGBT Center, the mental health and wellness provider Rock Riffle Wellness, the youth services organization Sojourners Resiliency Center, the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program, and Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood offers a variety of LGBTQ+ healthcare services at its Athens Health Center, including connections to PrEP and gender-affirming hormone therapy, in addition to STI testing, birth control, emergency contraception and abortion referrals.
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