ABOVE: Borderless LGBT is a cloud-based platform. (Photo courtesy of Borderless LGBT)
BENGALURU, India | The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc and forced India into a strict lockdown.
The Indian government, through the Union Health Ministry, says upwards of 530,677 people died from COVID-19, and the country administered 2,200,212,178 doses of vaccines. The pandemic, however, exposed the truth about discrimination based on gender identity in the country’s healthcare system.
India’s Transgender community, in particular, had a difficult time accessing the vaccine.
The country’s LGBTQ+ and intersex community often faces discrimination and stigma in both traditional private and government-run healthcare facilities. To tackle this, Borderless LGBT, the world’s first cloud-based health and wellness medical service that specifically focuses on LGBTQ+ and intersex healthcare, has launched a cloud clinic in India.
The cloud-based platform allows global experts to collaborate with local doctors who are interested in LGBTQ+ and intersex medicine to provide care to LGBTQ+ and intersex patients either in the clinic or at home via immersive telemedicine.
Borderless Health Care Group, Borderless LGBT’s parent company, provides a wide range of healthcare and wellness solutions to patients globally that includes general health, women’s health, men’s health, chronic disease management and pet care. But the idea behind Borderless LGBT came from the sense that the LGBTQ+ and intersex community is the most underserved, and there was a need for a platform that provides healthcare and wellness services to the community without any judgment.
“The goal is to democratize LGBT healthcare knowledge and services via the implementation of (an) LGBT clinic-of-the-future and technology-enabled LGBT home health,” Lani Santiago, vice president of the Borderless Healthcare Group’s Chairman’s Office, told the Washington Blade. “We have doctors from the U.S., Europe, Australia, (Southeast) Asia, India, etc.”
COVID-19 — and associated lockdowns, loss of employment and loved ones, the sudden overflow of patients and isolation from friends and family — affected mental health in India. This trend, however, is not new for the LGBTQ+ and intersex community.
Community members in a largely conservative Indian society have faced mental health issues all their lives, and researchers around the world have said the LGBTQ+ and intersex people face more mental health issues than heterosexuals. The stigma and prejudice in society have a different impact on the community.
Borderless LGBT in India, among other things, is providing mental health services for the LGBTQ+ and intersex community. The cloud-based platform is also providing health services for HIV, STD, sexual wellness, chronic disease management and family planning for the LGBTQ+ and intersex community in India.
Borderless LGBT is currently providing health care services in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka state in southern India. But in an interview with the Blade, Santiago said that the company has planned to roll out the services in other key cities in the country.
Santiago said that the traditional medical services that general hospitals offer do not cater to the specific needs of the LGBTQ+ and intersex community. In addition, the inefficiency and inherent conflict of interest in the traditional medical fraternity will take a long time to serve them.
“Borderless LGBT aims to create a new online-to-offline delivery channel to provide LGBT community unparalleled access to the best-of-class LGBT health and wellness knowledge and services where local doctors interested in LGBT healthcare can have instant access to global experts to support the management of their LGBT patients,” said Santiago. “The traditional provision of services is usually dependent on the knowledge and experience of the local doctor which in India, LGBT healthcare is still at its infancy.”
A 2021 report from National AIDS Control Organization, a division of India’s Health and Family Welfare Ministry, notes 2.4 million people are living with HIV in the country.
Stigma, societal pressure, and shame have pushed gay men underground, and not many of them seek help regarding HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Borderless LGBT and other innovative healthcare solutions can provide an opportunity for patients from the community to seek medical attention without facing discrimination, shame, or stigma with their privacy intact.
“Borderless LGBT is positioned to support the local doctors with the latest knowledge in LGBT healthcare via a new online-to-offline global ‘co-care’ model with global experts,” said Santiago. “Thus, bringing the best of proximal local care and the best of global matured LGBT healthcare knowledge to the LGBT community.”
Vinay Chandran, executive director of Swabhava, an NGO in India that supports the LGBTQ+ and intersex community with health and advocacy, told the Blade that a generation of LGBTQ+ and intersex people who have not benefitted from public health services might hopefully benefit from these cloud-based efforts.
One concern that Chandran has is how people outside of urban areas will access these services. Chandran, however, believes time will tell whether Borderless LGBT’s efforts to ensure adequate health care outreach will prove successful.
“LGBT+ people have had personal and historical encounters with healthcare that range from the ignorant to the violent,” he said. “It is to the credit of a huge number of activists and legal challenges that the National Medical Commission of India have required a rewriting of curriculum and contemplate disciplinary action for those practising conversion therapy. However, implementation fo such measures will take time. Meanwhile, if the working LGBT+ population can have access to such clinics, I’m sure it will benefit quite a few of them.”
Amrita Sarkar of Alliance India, another NGO that works to bolster care for Indians with HIV, echoed Chandran’s concerns about lack of access to cloud-based health care outside of urban areas. Sarkar during an interview with the Blade encouraged Borderless LGBT to work with local LGBTQ+ and intersex organizations to raise awareness of these platforms.
Ankush Kumar is a freelance reporter who has covered many stories for Washington and Los Angeles Blades from Iran, India and Singapore. He recently reported for the Daily Beast. He can be reached at mohitk@opiniondaily.news. He is on Twitter at @mohitkopinion.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
