Celebrating Pride: Macy Ferguson-Smith

We con­tin­ue the con­ver­sa­tion on Pride Month this week as we hear from QMG Behav­ioral Health Ther­a­pist Macy Fer­gu­son-Smith. Fer­gu­son-Smith shared that Pride Month is an impor­tant time to hon­or those who came before her and led the way, allow­ing her to be her authen­tic self.

“Pride, for me, is a cel­e­bra­tion of the LGBTQ+ elders who forged a path for peo­ple like me to live my life open­ly and have the same rights and lib­er­ties as oth­er humans. Peo­ple like Har­vey Milk and Mar­sha P. John­son, among so many oth­ers, who had the courage to be them­selves at a time when pro­tec­tion was nonex­is­tent for the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty,” she said.

Their courage inspired her to ded­i­cate her career to sup­port­ing oth­ers in her field of men­tal health.

“Grow­ing up in this area, I didn’t have a ton of guid­ance as an LGBTQ+ teen,” she said. ​“I need­ed a ther­a­pist or an adult like me when I was that age to help sort through every­thing. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, ther­a­pists with that skillset were not as read­i­ly avail­able in the mid-2000s. Pride Month taps into my inner child to remind me that my younger self would be incred­i­bly proud of who I am today and the affirm­ing and inclu­sive care I choose to pro­vide to my patients.”

When speak­ing about health­care, Fer­gu­son-Smith said, ​“Inclu­sion of the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty in health­care is para­mount because we still need med­ical care like all oth­er humans.”

She con­tin­ued, ​“LGBTQ+ folks need health­care just like any oth­er pop­u­la­tion. It is up to us as part of the Quin­cy com­mu­ni­ty and QMG fam­i­ly to under­stand the dis­pro­por­tion­ate rates of neg­a­tive men­tal health out­comes due to lack of sup­port. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant in young peo­ple as stud­ies pub­lished ear­li­er this year dis­cuss the impact of COVID-19 in the school set­ting and how LGBTQ+ stu­dents were at a larg­er dis­ad­van­tage when doing remote learn­ing due to the pos­si­bil­i­ty of not hav­ing sup­port­ive adults in their lives and no out­let to express themselves.”

The impact of hav­ing a health­care provider who wel­comed her is a par­tic­u­lar­ly poignant moment for Fer­gu­son-Smith. Pri­or to this expe­ri­ence, she had delayed seek­ing care.

“Dr. Ada Kagum­ba (Obstetrician/​Gynecologist at QMG) was my first intro­duc­tion to affirm­ing and inclu­sive health­care at QMG. I can still remem­ber one of my first appoint­ments with her. I was ter­ri­fied and I brought my mom because I’d nev­er talked about ALL of who I was with any doc­tor, but it’s vital infor­ma­tion for any med­ical pro­fes­sion­al I choose to lead my care,” she shared. ​“Ear­ly on in the appoint­ment, Dr. Kagum­ba shared her expe­ri­ences in car­ing for LGBTQ+ humans, which allowed me to speak open­ly and hon­est­ly about my lived expe­ri­ence as a mem­ber of the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty. It was so REG­U­LAR. She talked with me about my part­ner like we were any oth­er cou­ple. I hadn’t expe­ri­enced that feel­ing in a med­ical set­ting until that appoint­ment, because I skipped going to the doc­tor for so many years before that year. It’s been six or so years ago and I have her to thank for help­ing me take back con­trol of my health. Dr. Kagumba’s sin­cer­i­ty and com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing an affirm­ing and inclu­sive space didn’t come from a man­u­al, expen­sive train­ing, or set of rules she had to fol­low. She was a human talk­ing to anoth­er human about their health, who hap­pened to be in a rela­tion­ship with a woman. I’ll nev­er for­get how incred­i­ble that made me feel, and I aim to do the same with all of my patients.”

Fer­gu­son-Smith explained that it’s not being part of LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty that is stress­ful, but rather the lack of empa­thy that those in the com­mu­ni­ty face.

“The lack of empa­thy con­tin­ues to be some­thing we must address to ensure the health­care needs of all indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty, are met in envi­ron­ments where they feel safe,” she said.

She encour­ages all to use Pride Month as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to get more involved.

“When it comes to Pride, I would love for my peers and oth­er mem­bers of the Quin­cy Com­mu­ni­ty to know that it’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty to sup­port local orga­ni­za­tions doing incred­i­ble work to cre­ate affirm­ing and inclu­sive spaces for the LGBTQ+ pop­u­la­tion. The Gen­der-Sex­u­al­i­ty Alliances at Quin­cy Senior High School and Quin­cy Uni­ver­si­ty, respec­tive­ly, the Tri-State Diver­si­ty Coali­tion which launched their first Pride Cel­e­bra­tion in Quin­cy last Fall, and the PFLAG group that serves the Quin­cy-Han­ni­bal area as a safe space to gath­er and debrief on their lived expe­ri­ences once a month.”