The Care We Dream Of

• This is the third book by Zena Sharman that we’ve published; the first two were anthologies: Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme, edited with Ivan E. Coyote (2011, an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book), and The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Health Care (2016, Lambda Literary Award winner). The success of The Remedy (sales of over 10,000 copies) encouraged Zena to write her own book that imagines what ideal health care for LGBTQ+ people could look like.
• Many LGBTQ+ people have suffered negative experiences at the hands of the medical establishment, going back to when homosexuality in the US was deemed a mental illness until 1973. Through the trauma of the AIDS crisis to the frustrations experienced by trans people under the care of uncaring or hostile physicians (30% of trans people report health care discrimination), the LGBTQ+ community is used to feeling underserved by medical professionals. But in The Care We Dream Of, Zena posits ways that the medical and the LGBTQ+ communities can work together to create frameworks for health care that work.
• Subjects include inclusive policies for all members of the LGBTQ+ community; health care for sex workers; pleasure-centered rather than pain-focused health care; suicide prevention; and the care of the elderly and dying.
• The book is aimed at both LGBTQ+ patients and for health care providers.
• The book should have academic interest in the areas of health care/medicine, sociology, and LGBTQ studies.
• Zena will conduct online events with bookstores and LGBTQ+ health care organizations and groups.