QC at the LGBTIQ+ cancer conference
We travelled to London to attend the OUTpatients’ annual LGBTIQ+ Cancer Conference. We expected to be uplifted and informed, but we didn’t anticipate the sense of queer connection and joy that we felt during and after the event.
The conference was a full day of plenaries and workshops punctuated by good food and friendly networking. The talks ranged from inspiring patient narratives, to tips on co-production and research updates. We presented a session entitled “Queering Cancer: A Canadian perspective on inclusive cancer care” with a little bit of Canadian queer and trans history and an overview of our work.
Here’s a few of our highlights:
The day started with a quick podcast recording with RadChat. We love Naman and Jo’s work to uplift radiation therapy and it was great to catch up and share what QC has been doing lately.
We are huge fans of patient stories at QC, so it’s no surprise that we loved the joint project by OUTpatients and Goldsmiths College “Living in Queer Cancer World” presented by Professor Lisa Blackman, the Project Director. The project features eight storytellers who are using their experiences of living with and through a cancer diagnosis to explore, unsettle, and transform normative narratives of health and illness. Two of the authors have been featured on our stories page. As the website states, “storytelling can act as an antidote, and as an act of collective care and kindness”.
The session by Nancy Kelley, “Through the Looking Glass: Understanding the gendered experience of LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people with cancer” was a powerful first hand account of breast cancer. Nancy’s exploration of queer cancer world included her experiences of cisheteronormative themes and assumptions like “the case of the missing husbands", “how to look beautiful for your man”, and, "cancer world wants us to look pretty”.
The workshop “Radical co-production: Rethinking health with Black and African queer community voices” was facilitated by the community group African Queer and Creative. This was an interactive session all about the do’s and don’ts of co-creation with candid advice on building trust with Black and African communities through early involvement in projects, fair and respectful compensation, and an emphasis on “designing with” rather than “designing for”.
Dr. Ariel Breaux-Torres presented the inspirational “Beyond Reform: Abolitionist approaches to health equity”. Our healthcare models are typically biomedical and rooted in anti-Blackness, transphobia, ableism etc. As a contrast, abolitionist approaches call for the dismantling of oppressive systems to imagine new ways of being and connecting. Breaux-Torres led the audience through an overview of new ways of imagining the organization of care delivery such as designing from the margins and epistemic justice where true equality can be fostered.
The conference wouldn’t have existed without the passion and hard work of OUTpatients founder Stewart O’Callaghan. Stewart has been an amazing supporter and mentor for Queering Cancer over the last couple of years. It was great to be able to thank them in our presentation for their guidance, comradeship, and for breaking ground in LGBTQ+ cancer care for others to follow. They are also the lucky recipient of a (toy!) Nova Scotia lobster and enough maple syrup flavoured items to last them a while!
We’ll close with this quote shared by Dr. Breaux-Torres that perfectly sums up the how we felt at the end of this inspiring day:
“Radical hope is a refusal to accept things as they are. In moments where oppression silences, where crisis overwhelms, and where cynicism threatens to take hold, choosing to hope is itself an act of defiance. It is a declaration that the status quo is not permanent and that transformation is possible. Hope does not mean ignoring reality-it means confronting it with the determination to change it.”