Three to Receive Chancellor's Award for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and/or Transgender Leadership

Chancellor Mike Bishop, MD, will recognize three members of the campus community with the Chancellor’s Award for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and/or Transgender (GLBT) Leadership during a ceremony on Wednesday, June 10.

The ceremony will begin at noon in the UCSF School of Nursing, room 225, on the Parnassus campus.

The 2009 recipients of the GLBT leadership award are:

• Jennifer A. Burnett, MD, assistant clinical professor in the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program
• Stuart Gaffney, policy analyst at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies in the Department of Medicine and
• Thomas Yi, a fourth-year student in the UCSF School of Pharmacy

Jennifer A. Burnett

Burnett is beginning her fourth year with the Family and Community Medicine Residency Program, working primarily in Selma, a small agricultural community in the Central Valley.

Two years ago, Burnett opened the Transgender Medicine Practice at the Central Valley Family Health Clinic in Selma, and is currently treating more than 50 transsexual patients in various stages of transition. Burnett’s program allows patients to receive all their transgender (TG) medical care as well as treatment for any non-TG medical problems at less cost than what they were paying for their medication alone.

She provides low-cost, good quality, cross-gender hormone preparations and ongoing transgender health care and patient education to male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals in the Central Valley. Many of these same patients had been using black market hormone preparations and had been self-medicating at great risk. Her efforts have resulted in a quantum leap in quality of health care delivery to a previously underserved group of disadvantaged Central Valley residents.

A postop MTF transsexual herself, Burnett has firsthand knowledge of the various issues her patients deal with. She offers free telephone consultation services to doctors, particularly in rural areas far from most transgender medical care clinics, and crisis counseling for transsexuals by telephone and email, providing encouragement and support to those encountering severe upheavals in their lives as they go through gender transition.

Burnett’s contributions have ranged from educating lawmakers and other public figures regarding gender identity issues and the plight of the transgendered to providing professional advice and emotional support to people at various stages of their transition who are struggling against ostracism and discrimination.

Burnett has spoken to UCSF Fresno faculty and residents on GLBT health care issues, has mentored GLBT medical students and residents, and has written extensively on gender identity disorder. She is a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the International Foundation for Gender Education, and is on the community action board of the UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender HIV Prevention.

Burnett is also the California Academy of Family Physicians GLBT delegate to the American Academy of Family Physicians National Conference of Special Constituencies, which was held this month in Kansas City, Missouri. She is frequently asked to speak at transgender conferences across the United States, and this month will present a paper at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health biennial symposium in Oslo, Norway.

Stuart Gaffney

Gaffney, a policy analyst at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies in the Department of Medicine, is committed to bringing social justice and equality to the GLBT community at UCSF and elsewhere. Over the last five years, he has worked on behalf of GLBT couples seeking the same rights and responsibilities as those currently reserved solely for married, heterosexual couples.

He and his husband, John, were plaintiffs in the lawsuit In re Marriage Cases before the California Supreme Court, which for a time successfully challenged the constitutionality of limiting civil marriage rights and benefits to heterosexual couples.

At UCSF, Gaffney has given presentations on marriage equality in the GLBT Wellness Lecture Series, and has organized and spoken at two different film events: the UCSF LGBT Film Series and a screening of The Freedom to Marry at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. He has also given presentations at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare’s social justice conference, at Stanford University, and to high school and college student organizations.

In 2004, Gaffney went on a 10-day trip across the country to rally supporters in other states, which culminated in a stop in Washington, DC, to speak with the nation’s leaders on the importance of ensuring equitable access to all the rights and responsibilities of marriage. With the passing of Proposition 8, Gaffney has become even more active by addressing rallies at the state capitol and at the California Supreme Court’s hearing of oral arguments on the constitutionality of Proposition 8.

Gaffney was profiled in UCSF Today in 2007, when he and John were named grand marshals of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade. They have also appeared in a variety of local and national media such as the New York Times, National Public Radio and CNN, led marches, and have spent their own money and time to meet with leaders in Sacramento and Washington, DC. His publications have included such diverse articles as “Freedom to Marry” in Currents, October 2008, and “Newlyweds After Seventeen Years” in Hitched! Wedding Stories from San Francisco City Hall, 2005.

His activism and tireless leadership raise awareness of the GLBT community and spotlight the need for social justice and an end to discrimination.

Thomas Yi

Fourth-year pharmacy student Thomas Yi has served as vice president of community health and School of Pharmacy student representative for the Associated Students of UCSF. In his second year at UCSF, Yi made many presentations about GLBT health disparities and has continued to be active in educating the campus community on GLBT health issues.

Last year, he was one of the coordinators of the issues in GLBT health elective, a class for future health professionals in all schools about how to effectively treat GLBT patients. Yi helped determine course topics, selected speakers and acquired funding. Last February, he contributed to organizing a successful GLBT health issues forum, the first-ever national conference for graduate health students on GLBT health issues. The conference attracted the interest of health professions students throughout California.

Yi has been an active member of the Student Health Advisory Committee, which provides input on and evaluates the design of student health insurance plan benefits each year. During his first year on the committee, he successfully lobbied for the inclusion of transgender surgical benefits and he has advocated that this benefit be expanded this year.

In addition, Yi has helped raise GLBT student concerns and issues in the School of Pharmacy, advocated more GLBT awareness in the school’s curriculum, and promoted the recruitment and admission of GLBT applicants to the School of Pharmacy’s doctoral program.

Demonstrating his commitment to the advancement of GLBT communities at UCSF, Yi led a petition in opposition to Proposition 8, organized a National Coming Out Day at UCSF and implemented diversity training for new students this year. He has shared his own personal struggles in an effort to empower others, and as a role model for GLBT students, is often referred to as someone who genuinely walks the walk.

Related Link:

UCSF’s Gaffney to Be Grand Marshal in San Francisco Pride Parade
UCSF Today, June 12, 2007