The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) is an international

International

----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...

 organization of approximately 1,000 (as of Aug 2008) lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) physicians, medical students, and their supporters in all 50 U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

s and 12 countries. Founded in 1981 as the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights, GLMA "came out of the closet

Coming out

Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....

" and changed its name in 1994. GLMA "works to combat homophobia within the medical profession and in society at large; to promote quality health care for LGBT and HIV-positive people; to foster a professional climate in which our diverse members can achieve their full potential; and to support members challenged by discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation." http://www.thebody.com/glma/glmapage.html

The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association works to ensure equality in health care for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals and health care professionals. GLMA achieves its goals by using medical expertise in professional education, public policy work, patient education and referrals, and the promotion of research.

GLMA worked with the American Medical Association

American Medical Association

The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...

 to adopt measures requiring "the physician's nonjudgmental recognition of sexual orientation and behavior," and to reverse a 13-year-old A.M.A. policy of encouraging programs to acquaint gay patients with "the possibility of sex preference reversal

Sexual orientation change efforts

Sexual orientation change efforts are methods that aim to eliminate a same-sex sexual orientation. They may include behavioral techniques, cognitive behavioral techniques , psychoanalytic techniques, medical approaches, religious and spiritual approaches.The longstanding consensus of the...

 in selected cases." They also publish the Journal of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

Research Activities

In the summer of 2006, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) undertook a project to investigate the causes and extent of methamphetamine use among gay men and other men who have sex with men

Men who have sex with men

Men who have sex with men are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves; many men choose not to accept sexual identities of homosexual or bisexual...

(MSM), options for treating methamphetamine dependence, and how best to get methamphetamine-dependent gay men into appropriate treatment, as well as to explore other issues and controversies associated with these issues.