Adrian Shanker (he/him) is editor of the critically-acclaimed anthology Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health (PM Press, 2020) and Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic (PM Press, 2022). He is an experienced LGBTQ+ community leader with a focus on LGBTQ+ health policy and promotion, barriers to care, and health equity. He is the executive director of The Spahr Center, Marin County California’s LGBTQ+ Community Center, and previously founded and led Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in the Biden-Harris Administration.
Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic
SKU: 9781629639352
Author: Adrian Shanker • Foreword by Rea Carey
Series: PM Press
ISBN: 9781629639352
Published: 06/07/2022
Format: Paperback
Size: 5×8
Pages: 128
Subjects: SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBTQ+ Studies • HEALTH & FITNESS / LGBTQ+ Health
Praise
“Adrian Shanker has emerged in recent years as an urgent and prescient voice on matters concerning queer health. Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic is timely, important and shares a message we ignore at our own peril. The response to COVID-19 from LGBTQ communities is informed by our own experience with a deadly pandemic made vastly worse by poor presidential leadership. Our lived experience over the past 40 years has valuable lessons for how we should be addressing today’s viral threats.”
—Sean Strub, author of Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival
“How did we respond? That is the central question in Crisis and Care. Lots of books will look at COVID-19, but this book looks at how LGBTQ activists responded to one of the most challenging moments of our lives.”
—Igor Volsky, author of Guns Down: How to Defeat the NRA and Build a Safer Future with Fewer Guns
“In Crisis and Care, Adrian Shanker and the contributing authors make the bold case that we are defined not by the bad things that happen in our society, but by how our community responds.”
—Robyn Ochs, editor of Bi Women’s Quarterly
“Crisis and Care tells stories about Queer people’s experiences during COVID-19 that needs to be memorialized as another example of our community’s resiliency in times of crisis. This book presents the stories of how LGBTQ community members came together to help one another not only survive the pandemic, but also our determination to thrive despite the failures of the federal government’s response.”
—David Heitstuman, executive director of the Sacramento LGBT Community Center
Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health
SKU: 9781629637846
Author: Adrian Shanker • Foreword: Rachel L.Levine, MD • Afterword: Kate Kendell
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 9781629637846
Published: 3/1/2020
Format: Paperback
Size: 6 x 9
Page count: 256
Subjects: LGBT Studies/Health
Praise
“Now, more than ever, we need Bodies and Barriers to shine a
spotlight on how and why good healthcare for LGBTQ people and our
families is such a challenge. Bodies and Barriers provides a road map
for all who are ready to fight for health equity—in the doctor’s office,
in the halls of government, or in the streets.”
—Rea Carey, executive director National LGBTQ Task Force
“Bodies and Barriers helps LGBT community members understand
the way people in the U.S. health services market erect barriers to
anyone who is not the source of easy and immediate profit, and helps us
all confront and break down these barriers. It helps families of LGBT
people understand these obstacles and options for getting around them.
And it helps health professionals hear the voices of all their patients,
so that we learn to listen, and learn how to care for everyone.”
—Michael Fine, MD, former director, Rhode Island Department of Health, author of Health Care Revolt: How to Organize, Build a Health Care System, and Resuscitate Democracy All at the Same Time
“Adrian Shanker and the contributing authors highlight the need for
clinicians to up their game when it comes to caring for sexual and
gender minority people in their practices. Bodies and Barriers serves
as a guide with concrete suggestions for developing knowledge,
awareness, and skills to provide holistic care for LGBT people from the
cradle to the grave. This book is a gem in that it centers LGBT people’s
voices telling providers exactly how they want to be treated. It’s time
providers listen to and act on these recommendations.”
—Jonathan Mathias Lassiter, PhD; coeditor of Black LGBT Health in the United States: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation
“Bodies and Barriers is truly a must-read for anyone working
in medical care, social services, or public health. This book brings us
closer to the goal of patient-centered care, not only for LGBT
communities, but for everyone.”
—Kristen Emory, PhD; director and advisor, Undergraduate Program at San Diego State University School of Public Health
“These patient and caregiver experiences ring so loudly in today’s
environment, when we have compelling evidence of a need for widespread
practice change, yet the medical establishment remains slow to respond
to the calls from those patients and their caregivers who are asking so
boldly—and rightfully—for those changes. Bodies and Barriers is
a call to action for learners at all levels, in all health fields, to
start now, creating a future where health equity is the norm, and no one
is denied the opportunity to thrive.”
—Scott Nass, MD, MPA, president GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality
Book Events
january, 2025
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Reviews
- Reading Resolution: Best Book: “Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health”
- Reading Resolution: “Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health”
- 11 Books on the Bias Against Women in Healthcare and Medicine in Book Riot
- New Anthology Shines Light on Queer Health
- Bodies and Barriers—OutSmart Magazine
- Bodies and Barriers: new anthology shines light on queer health— Bay Area Reporter
- “Whether you’re fighting for your life in a doctor’s office, an emergency room, or a state legislature, this book is an invaluable resource.”
- Bodies and Barriers in The Gay & Lesbian Review
- Bodies and Barriers one of Lambda Literary’s Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of May 2020
- Bodies and Barriers—OutSmart Magazine
Interviews
- Adrian Shanker on Queer Diagnosis: The LGBTQ+ Health Podcast
- Adrian Shanker on Your Health Checkup: LGBTQ Doctor Care
- Doctors and LGBTQ leaders explain why it’s important to come out to your healthcare provider
- An Interview with Adrian Shanker, Editor of Bodies and Barriers
- Drinking and Drashing: Torah with a Twist— Adrian Shanker
- Adrian Shanker and Laura Jacobs on Transcaster Radio
- Speaking Out for LGBT Health: Interview With Editor of Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health
- Interview with Adrian Shanker, Editor of Bodies and Barriers on The Center on Colfax
- Adrian Shanker on Lehigh Valley with Love
- Bodies and Barriers: Editor Adrian Shanker in Conversation with Contributors
Mentions
- 10 Impactful Books About Public Health
- Literary Citizen: Writers Shaping Culture Book Club — A Call for Submissions
- Bodies and Barriers on Book Riot
- ‘This is what health disparities look like in real life.’— By Adrian Shanker
- Bodies and Barriers in Out in New Jersey
- No Shamrock Required: Taking “Luck” Out of the Health Care Access Equation
- How a kid growing up in the heart of central Pa. found his voice as a transgender teen
- Bodies and Barriers and Adrian Shanker in The Courier Newsroom
- Bodies and Barriers in Queer Lit Preview 2020 on Turnaround Blog
- Bodies and Barriers — books to watch out for on NBC News
Blog
- Queer Health Activism
- Excerpt of James McMaster’s chapter read by @JaiSuazo on TikTok
- Crisis and Care Excerpt in Lesbian News
- Crisis and Care in the SF Bay Times
- We keep trying. We keep failing. We keep figuring it out
- Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic
- How we Imagine Health Care Equity in 2022
- At the Core of Care— LGBTQ+ Inclusive Care, Part 2 Discussing Equitable Healthcare Access
- Six Organizations and Activists Improving LGBTQ Health
- At the Core of Care— LGBTQ+ Inclusive Care, Part 1 Personal Experiences