Medical schools seek to overcome "invisibility" of gay patients, gay issues in curriculum.

Dr. Gary Gibson of Cambridge, Ont., went many years without identifying a single gay patient in his practice. When he "came out" about his homosexuality in 1981, about 15 of his patients revealed they were gay. Gibson, a professor of family medicine at the University of Western Ontario who is active in the College of Family Physicians of Canada, says such information is useful, because "if they don't identify, they may not get the medical advice they need." He wants medical students to receive more education in gay and lesbian issues, and recently drafted a gay and lesbian curriculum for postgraduate family medicine, which has been endorsed by the CMA.