A gay doctor who is one of Louisiana’s only specialist paediatric cardiologists has left the state after the introduction of a Don’t Say Gay copycat bill and a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Jake Kleinmahon, who was one of just three doctors specialising in heart transplants for children in Louisiana, chose to leave the state with his family, as they no longer felt safe.

Kleinmahon met and fell in love with his husband Tom in New Orleans, and the couple expected remain in Louisiana, even after retirement. However, he told CNN that the state’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation made him and his family feel unwelcome and that he ultimately “didn’t have a choice”.

  • oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Flees Louisiana makes it sound like he was chased out by a lunch mob. This is grandstanding. Gender affirming ‘care’ for children should be banned.

  • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    he is an internally displaced refugee. that’s what it’s come to now with all this. we need to liberate nazi-occupied states

    • Vijfsnippervijf@feddit.nl
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      9 months ago

      Let that be done by the EU once Trump decides to leave NATO. (/s of course, no one can ever invade the US, and their decisions are theirs as long as they do not seek conflict with other countries!).

  • Weirdfish@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Was born premature, and required open heart surgery when I was only a few days old.

    When I was around 17 I had the chance to visit the hospital and tour the children’s ICU I had been in. A children’s ICU is not the happiest place in the world, and there were strange looks from both staff and parents as we walked around, feeling very awkward.

    Then a short man with a thick accent burst through the door and hugged me. Turned out, the doctor who had performed my surgery was there and insisted on showing me around personally.

    He walked me over to a woman who was about the saddest person I have ever seen, sitting next to an incubator. “This is what your son will look like in 18 years” he told her.

    They took my picture, and hung it on the board for the kids who had “graduated”, and I have to believe it was the first time in a long time that room had joy and happiness in it.

    If someone had told me that that doctor wasn’t welcome because he had a husband I think I would have wanted to become violent.

    This law means that those families now have 1/3 fewer people to give a chance for thier kids, and the odds for me hadn’t been that great to begin with.

  • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    In a perfect world, there would be no reason for this to happen, but in a less perfect would- ALL LGBTQ+ people would leave all the red state dictatorships they currently live in- and go to where they’re welcomed with open arms.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    TL;DR: a gay pediatric cardiologist (one of only 3 pediatric cardiologists in the state) moved away because Louisiana politicians are predominantly backwards, regressive, homophobic shitstains. Other things too, but those are the characteristics relevant to the article.

  • agedbeef@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That fucking sucks he has to run away but also damn if he isn’t probably the hottest doctor in Louisiana…. Well not anymore