by Irene Axel
President Donald Trump’s executive order, issued on his first day of the second term, made it official policy: transgender, nonbinary, and intersex identities would no longer be recognized by the federal government. And, in turn, federal agencies started removing the questions that once measured SOGI [Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity] characteristics across approximately 360 data collections. —Instinct, February 19, 2026
A newbie gay sitting in my office
and the intake form said ???
next to sexually active
Girl, I see you.
And when she says I'm here for birth control
I whip out my rainbow pen to take notes and say
my usual normalizing speech
about the benefits of BC past preventing pregnancy
and we settle on a good plan to get to
NO MORE PERIODS
and when she starts to get up I say
hang on my dear what about a pap smear
you are 21 and due
and they say... but I'm well you know???
and I say—gently—aware of the white coat
covering my pride tattoo
you still need cervical cancer screening
and they shuffle their feet and bolt with a
KTHXBYE to go pick up their pills
but at least they were in my office
and now—we won't even know—
how many newbie gays
think they don't need
a gynecologist
when everyone with a cervix
needs the right
rainbow
gynecologist
Author's note: The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology cannot tell you how the rate of cervical cancer differs in the queer versus the straight population because they do not have enough data, but the ACOG does say that the risk factors for cervical cancer are more prevalent in LGBTQ patients and that ongoing research is needed. In addition, of course, LGBTQ patients may face significant obstacles in getting acreening—particularly transmen who may have a cervix and may not feel comfortable going to a gyn office to get a pelvic exam or pap smear. How are we in the field supposed to understand this underscreened population when federal policy works to obscure them?
Irene Axel is a queer OBGYN and a poet based in California. Her work has appeared in One Art: A Journal of Poetry.
