Stigma and discrimination against transgender health professional

Background. It is common stigma, prejudice and discrimination against sexual minorities (LGBTI) in all contexts. No research has shown the attitude towards a transgender nurse. Objective. To explore attitudes towards transgender person performing nursing care in a group of on line reader of a nationwide newspaper in Colombia. Materials and methods. It was carried out a qualitative study from the perspective of grounded theory, with comments recorded from Internet page of the newspaper over a story about the exercise of a transgender nurse. Results. The most comments were negative. The forum participants felt that LGBTI health professionals represented a danger to society. Four categories emerged: they are carriers and transmitters of diseases (including sexually transmitted infections), sexual predators, lack of professionalism and performance poor clinical practice. Conclusions. Newspaper readers show a negative attitude towards a transgender nurse. It is inferred that stigma, prejudice and discrimination against LGBTI persons extend to health professionals. They need to explore this topic with other research designs.