LGBTQ+ community says Sacramento ice rink isn’t inclusive with Dignity Health as sponsor
Sacramento’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community said Tuesday that they cannot enjoy the downtown ice rink as long as Dignity Health sponsors it and urged the Downtown Sacramento Partnership to end its funding deal with the organization.
Dignity has faced a number of lawsuits brought by individuals in the LGBTQ+ community. In a Supreme Court decision earlier this month, Sacramento resident Evan Minton won the right to sue Dignity over its last-minute cancellation of gender-affirming hysterectomy he had planned at Carmichael’s Mercy San Juan Medical Center. Dignity ultimately allowed the surgery days later at one of its non-Catholic hospitals, but Minton said in his lawsuit that he suffered a great deal of grief and anxiety as he awaited word.
“I was devastated and had to plead in the media to get the time-sensitive, medically-necessary healthcare I needed when Dignity Health closed their doors to me because I am transgender,” Minton said in a statement issued Tuesday. “I long assumed DSP was an ally, and that’s why their inactions are so disappointing to me. They are unwilling to use their leverage to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, and are continuing to remain silent when it matters.”
The Downtown Partnership responded by noting that it has a long history of embracing diversity and inclusion and that it hoped to continue partnering with the LGBTQ+ community.
“Our partnership with Dignity Health has allowed us to provide critical programming in the downtown core after nearly two years of devastating impacts,” the Downtown Partnership statement read. “As we continue to move downtown Sacramento forward and look to engage future partners, it will be our priority to ensure we continue to establish relationships with those entities that share a commitment to our core values of creating a welcoming, active, innovative, inclusive, and resilient downtown.”
Dignity Health issued a statement saying that it stands against discrimination of any kind and has long been devoted to serving people who struggle to get the health care they need.
“We were among the first to offer care in response to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s,” the Dignity statement noted. “Our network of care includes one of the country’s leading transgender surgical centers at The Gender Institute at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, which provides a comprehensive continuum of care to transgender patients. Additionally, our network of other care sites offers a wide range of transgender health care services.”
Minton joined with another former Dignity patient, Roseville resident Em Ward, to publicize their concerns. Ward said that Dignity’s forms do not have a way for patients to identify themselves as nonbinary, leading to a nightmarish experience at a Dignity psychiatric hospital where staff dismissed Ward’s concerns about safety and gender misidentification.
“The experience left scars,” Ward said. “I feel repulsed whenever I see Dignity Health’s advertising campaigns targeted to the LGBTQ+ community, because I know firsthand the harm they inflict on our community. I was looking forward to celebrating the holidays at the DSP ice skating rink, but with Dignity Health as a sponsor there’s no way I can go.”
A number of community organizations and elected officials joined Minton and Ward in urging the Downtown Sacramento Partnership to end the Dignity Health sponsorship when the current contract expires in 2023. They include the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, the Sacramento Stonewall Democrats, Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela and SMUD Board Member Rosanna Herber.
“Dignity Health must face the fact that they can’t effectively operate in our diverse Sacramento community without valuing all its citizens,” Herber said in a statement. “While I regret the Downtown Partnership is caught in the middle of this issue, our LGBTQ+ community must speak up. I hope the Downtown Partnership will end their relationship with Dignity Health and seek other sponsors for the downtown ice rink.”
This story was originally published November 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed a quote from a coalition of LGBTQ+ groups and their allies to Evan Minton.
