OSHU Pride Employee Resource Group records

As early as 2006, some members of the OHSU faculty began research on how to better provide support, mentorship, and resources for the health and wellbeing of their LGBTQ+ colleagues, who comprise an underrepresented and underserved community within general medicine, healthcare practice, and healthcare leadership.

In the fall of 2007, students, faculty, and staff from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Dentistry began meeting in an effort to create an organization to represent the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning, and queer individuals who make up the OHSU community. The goals were to build a sense of community at OHSU for “sexual minorities,” as well as to act as a source of visibility and advocacy for all sexual minorities who interact with OHSU. Out of this effort emerged the Coalition for Health and Advocacy for Sexual Minorities (CHASM).

Shortly after the group’s inception, CHASM began to increase its visibility and membership through the coordination of several notable events. These include the coordination of an annual food drive, the 2011 CHASM retreat, and the 2009 CHASM film festival (featuring screenings of Scout’s Honor, Transgender Life & Health, and Lavender Limelight). The group also played an instrumental role in organizing OHSU‘s first march in the Portland Pride Parade in 2010 alongside the Center for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs (CeDMA, now known as the Center for Diversity and Inclusion). The research on LGBTQ+ employee resource groups carried out prior to CHASM’s formation was one of several resources that helped inform the evaluation and revision of practices and policies across the university, and in 2011, OHSU was named a “Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign in the Healthcare Equality Index.

CHASM’s preliminary research on supporting LGBTQ+-identifying colleagues, their campus-wide outreach efforts, and the identification of major strategic goals for the group culminated in the submission of the OHSU Pride founding project charter on December 17, 2010, leading to the formal creation of the OHSU Pride Employee Resource Group. With a mission “to foster an inclusive environment that promotes LGBTQ wellness, education, research and advocacy within and across OHSU and the community,” this group continues working to make OHSU a safer and more inclusive environment for LGBTQ+-identifying employees in the present day.