After clinic staff develop connections and partnerships with SGM community members, ask them to share their experiences seeking and receiving primary care. Personal stories have the most potent meaning and can exert more significant impact than circulating narratives through articles and books or hearing them secondhand from professional trainers. Asking local SGM community members to share their stories also helps build relationships and trust with the clinic and makes providers feel more knowledgeable about this population.2 However, when SGM people share their adverse healthcare experiences, it may have an emotional and economic cost. If an SGM person is asked to speak to a group regarding their healthcare experiences, the clinic should consider financial compensation for transportation, missed employment, or childcare. While it is hard to put a monetary value on the emotional cost to a speaker, an honorarium from the clinic offers recognition of the importance of the education that SGM people provide through their personal stories.
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