Cultural Care: Sexual Orientation As Bias In Health Care Practices

Background: The objective was to identify the perception of Les-bian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people about the implications of non-heterosexual sexual orientation in health care practices.. Methods: We adopted a qualitative research by conducting inter-views with 30 gay and bisexual individuals recruited in the munici-pality of Juazeiro do Norte, Brazil, from the snowball technique in 2013. The data was categorized and analyzed based on the Theory of Diversity and Universality of Cultural Care. Findings: It was found that sexual minorities have encountered prejudiced and discriminatory professional practices in health care as a result of heteronormative cultural representations, which reflect difficulties in accessibility to the services. The exclusionary cultural care results in poor self-care and linked to sexually transmitted di-seases, low attendance and distance of health services for gay and bisexual men. Conclusion: It is believed that the influence of heteronormative cultural conceptions in services imply deficit of self-care by the group