If you ask any polygraph examiner in OKC, they’d verify that the LGBTQIA+ community has been the object of discrimination, particularly in the health industry. The blatant and sometimes violent victimization rightfully makes individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community to feel particularly vulnerable.
Even simple things like a health checkup or a polygraph examination puts them on edge. One can easily hold the countless numbers of assault, degradation and violent attack people of this community have suffered in the past. In fact, even the School of Law in UCLA gives testimony to the fact that the LGBTQIA+ people have experienced violence from strangers and acquaintances alike.
Hence, wherever they go, there is sure to be a feeling of apprehension, fear and vulnerability surrounding them. A polygraph examination in Oklahoma City is no different In this regard, in fact even more challenging perhaps.
The sole reason behind this is the fact that polygraph examinations are useful in criminal investigations and even intelligence gatherings. They’re a vital tool for the government agencies and police authorities who wish to verify the authenticity and truthfulness of suspects.
It’s public knowledge that the LGBTQIA+ community has been the object of scorn, ridicule and suspicion for years, needlessly. If a member of this fragile community has to undergo something as sensitive as a polygraph examination, one can figure the welcome they’d get.
There’s a stigma that has surrounded this particular lot, quite unfairly though. Even today, it is saddening to see that people ruthlessly use this stigma to prevent many of the LGBTQIA+ members from normal and fair proceedings. Not only in the case of medical care but legal proceedings as well, such as a polygraph examination.
Polygraph Examination- What it is like for the LGBTQIA+ Community
It is the right of every person to be able to seek medical care, public services and fair treatment wherever they go. Does it sound right for a person to have to encounter mistreatment, harassment and service denial when they want to see a doctor? To a straight and privileged person, it sounds downright offending: but to an LGBTQIA+ individual it is the norm.
Every polygraph examiner in Oklahoma is perhaps a witness to the discrimination that this community has had to suffer. Before the law stepped in and the Affordable Care Act addressed the issue, sex stereotypes and gender identity dominated.
Conservative forces compelled the people in service to deliberately discriminate the people of the LGBTQIA+ community. In doing so, it endangered their lives, denied them fair proceedings in events like a polygraph examination and deprived them of many rights
There was a time when the LGBTQI+ members would experience mis gendering. Hospitals would discharge them early without delivering proper treatment and care. This widespread discrimination left a permanent scar on this community. Despite the Obama administration rule that worked tirelessly to eradicate this menace and spread equality, things have not been easy.
Even today, when the government explicitly protects the LGBTQI+ people, they are not always comfortable. There’s always the feeling of vulnerability and trepidation when they have to sit for simple tests like a polygraph examination. There’s always a hesitation, stemming from a past memory and the lack of explicit laws even today.
LGBTQI+ Community- Facing Discrimination in Polygraph Examination
The methods of a polygraph examination in Oklahoma City have become standardized for everyone but there’s still a wide gap in many other states. Despite the multiple protections that the law has put in place for this community, the LGBTQI+ members continue face disturbing treatments.
Humiliation, harassment, unfair processes in polygraph examinations are still evident in some places. Even today, there are some pharmacists, hospitals and even doctors who turn away members of this community, seeking help.
The CAP ran a survey some time back to show the rates of discrimination that LGBTQI+ individuals still face. Let’s take a look at some of the stats below:
Stats from the Year before the Survey
- Seven percent claimed to have experienced forced physical contact, during polygraph examinations or healthcare visits.
- Nine percent claimed to have received abusive and harsh insults from professionals, doctors and staff members catering to them.
- Seven percent of the LGBTQI+ community said that a healthcare provider, doctor, polygraph examiner in OKC refused to cater to them. Some medical professionals even refused to treat their family, including same-sex partners and children.
- Six percent claimed to have experienced denial for healthcare services relating to their perceived or real sexual orientation.
- Eight percent of the LGBTQI+ members said that medical professionals refused to see them at all on the basis of their perceived or real sexual orientation.
Stats from the Year after the Survey
- Twenty-nine percent gave witness to being victims of unwanted physical contact from medical professionals, when the former approached the latter for a consultation.
- Twenty-one percent witnessed to being recipients of abusive insults and improper language from doctors, healthcare providers and lab technicians.
- Twenty-three percent claimed that doctors, healthcare providers and other professionals deliberately mis gendered them or used false names.
- Twelve percent of the LGBTQI+ community said that doctors and medical practitioners refused to deliver healthcare services relating to their gender transition.
- Twenty-nine percent claimed to have received a refusal for healthcare services due to their perceived or actual sexual orientation.
Final Thoughts
The government has worked actively in the past couple of years to protect and provide rights for the LGBTQIA+ members. But like any polygraph examiner in Oklahoma will tell you, things are not too easy still for the community members.
Blatant discrimination in the past have deterred the LGBTQI+ people from unhesitatingly seeking care and services in any form. Be it a polygraph examination in Oklahoma City or a visit to a doctor, they always feel vulnerable and fearful of facing denial and abuse.
Discrimination Prevents LGBTQ People From Accessing Health Care
If your boss asked you to take a polygraph test, would you?
LGBT people nearly four times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of violent crime
