ALISON GERIG
For Alison Gerig, queer health and justice are inextricably linked. She was turned on to the connection during graduate school at Columbia University and her concurrent work with homeless LGBT youth at New York’s Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. Her experience influenced her later position as the health director of Philadelphia’s LGBT health center. In 2005, she began her own practice as a therapist, but continues to advance the cause of queer health justice by leading training sessions for other therapists about working with gender-non-conforming clients, as well as directing a feminist mental health non-profit for low-income self-identified women in Philadelphia. Each of her endeavors stems from a single goal: “I hope to offer LGBT communities a window into wholeness, where justice meets the self and leads to healing, action and transformation,” she says. Recently, Gerig decided to take action in a different way and is expecting a baby in October. “I watch clients take leaps of faith all the time. It was my turn to try.” –SJ
