LGBT Health Care Access: Considering the Contributions of an Invitational Approach

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have historically, and continue today to encounterbarriers to accessing health services. This has been attributed to the well-documented heterosexism,homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia that shape all health and social institutions. In this paper,invitational theory offers insight into the challenges faced by a childbearing lesbian couple to accesssupportive health care, and sheds light on inequities faced by LGBT people when accessing health care inCanada. The author draws on critical feminist research and invitational concepts to build an understandingof four dimensions of this couple’s access to supportive care. The invitational approach is combined withan explicitly critical stance to highlight gender and other relations of power, and to provide a theoreticalrationale for incorporating invitational concepts into equity-related research, including a currentapplication focused on improving LGBT home care access in the Canadian context. Given the deeplyembedded structural inequities that hinder the creation of intentionally inviting environments for diversegroups, this research has implications both for shedding light on areas in need of health care accessresearch, as well as for integrating invitational approaches that align with critical pedagogies into healthcare education.