Abstract
Current healthcare issues include areas in which medicine confronts religion like Islam with the unacceptable. A thorough and critical analysis may show that this is driven not so much by medical evidence but by the changing societal norms and the lack of pressure to resist the change in these norms. A few studies highlight that after many years of promoting gender identity as an alternative to biological sex, and despite a growing number of requests for sex- and gender-sensitive analyses in research applications, there appears to be lack of methodological clarity on how sex or gender should be analyzed in practice. Medical field still heavily focuses on the impact of biological sex on health and disease, which is more inline with religious and sociocultural positions, owing to the fact that gender is oftentimes operationalized as a somewhat fuzzy construct. In addressing the numerous health problems of the LGBTQ community, there seems to be a ‘paradox of empathy’ where religious approaches, including the implementation of religious law are regarded as discriminatory and oppressive when in actual fact, it contributes significantly to the betterment of health among gays, bisexuals and transgender people. There needs to be an objective re-examination of the concept of empathy towards the LGBTQ community. Puberty blockers for children, sex reassignment surgery, chemsex abuse, and sexual transmitted diseases are among the scores of health issues amongst the LGBTQ community. A different direction is much needed and overdue in deploying empathy and concepts of non-discrimination.
Presenters
Rafidah Hanim MokhtarProfessor in Gender Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Fragile Meanings: Vulnerability in the Study of Religions and Spirituality
KEYWORDS
LGBTQ, Islam, Gender, Homosexuality, HIV
