Travis County’s first free Gender Care clinic opened March 9. The new medical center, set for operation every other Thursday from 5-8:30pm (including today, March 23), within the Kind Clinic at St. David’s Hospital on East 30th Street, will explicitly address the health care needs of Austin’s transgender and gender nonconforming communities – a population which has been neglected by the city’s health care providers – by covering general wellness exams, counseling, and case management referrals and treatment for HIV positive trans patients (“Season of Risk,” May 22, 2015). Dr. Cynthia Brinson, the clinic’s medical director and a founding member of Kind, told the Chronicle that a trans-specific medical center represents a crucial step toward reaching Central Texas’ goal of eliminating new HIV infections by 2020. “If we offer the trans and GNC communities a place they’re comfortable and can get their primary health care needs met … then we can also help get them other services like PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis], and general medical care,” Brinson said. “It’s all about getting people into a clinic where they feel comfortable to take care of their total needs, not just our purposes.” Schedule an appointment at 512/853-9547, or online: www.kindclinic.com/book-an-appointment.
Gender Care in Kind
A version of this article appeared in print on Mar 24, 2017 with the headline: Gender Care in Kind
This article appears in March 24 • 2017.