LGBT Awards highlight contributions
Posted 6/10/2010
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Michael Wong, MD, medical director of transplant infection diseases, and Bay Windows, New England's largest LGBT newspaper, have been honored at BIDMC's annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Achievement Awards Ceremony for their outstanding contributions of individuals and groups who support and advance LGBT issues in the workplace and community.
Wong, a highly respected physician, researcher and educator, was recognized for his lifetime of accomplishments in promoting health for the individuals for whom he has cared, and his leadership in the public health policy arena. Wong's clinical practice includes his work in the division of infectious disease, and for almost a decade, he has also held a weekly clinic at The Dimock Center in Roxbury, bringing expertise in HIV/AIDS to a vulnerable community.
He serves as the Board President of AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and as a gubernatorial appointee to the Massachusetts Public Health Council where he brings his clinical perspective and the voice of underserved patients to developing public health strategies and policies.
For more than two decades, Bay Windows has been providing its readers with award-winning articles and editorials on issues critical to LGBT communities. Co-publishers Sue O'Connell and Jeff Coakley accepted the award and commented that "Bay Windows is not a newspaper we own. It is a community that we serve."
Keynote speaker Lisa Krinsky, director of the LGBT Aging Project, spoke of the challenges facing an aging LGBT population including a distrust of main-stream healthcare providers and other institutions.
"This is a population that is more likely to age alone," she said. "Our mission is to assure equal access to resources and care with dignity." As part of her presentation, attendees were given a preview of "Gen Silent," a documentary about the LGBT elderly and their fears of abuse in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other institutions.
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