An Oregon woman with breast cancer has spoken out after she was reportedly banned from her medical clinic for questioning the presence of a trans flag in the medical setting.
Marlene Barbera, 55, who was dropped off from the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic in Portland just weeks before her scheduled mastectomy, told DailyMail.com she has been living in fear since she was cut off from her medical provider.
“I’m scared in this city and hope I’m safe when I’m vulnerable in the hospital,” Barbera said Monday.
The Richmond Family Medicine Clinic wrote to Barbera in late June to inform her that she was no longer welcome as a patient after the incident in which she objected to the trans flag in the clinic’s waiting room.
“Effective immediately, you are discharged from medical care at Richmond Family Medicine Clinic. This action is being taken due to continued disrespectful and hurtful comments towards our LGBTQ community and our staff,” the letter read.
Marlene Barbera, who has breast cancer, was dropped off from the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic in Portland just weeks before her scheduled mastectomy
“Effective immediately, you are discharged from medical care at Richmond Family Medicine Clinic. This action is being taken due to continued disrespectful and hurtful comments towards our LGBTQ community and our staff,” the letter wrote.
“Please note that you are also now discharged from all of OHSU’s family medicine clinics, including the immediate care clinics.”
After the initial objection to the flag, Barbera expressed her concerns in a MyChart message to the clinic.
“I’m uncomfortable, as a gender-critical woman, who believes that gender is nonsense and sexed bodies are reality, I’m uncomfortable walking into Richmond with that huge transgenderism banner flying like a Nazi flag behind the front desk.” hangs. she wrote.
In the message, Barbera says she has been harassed with death and rape threats from trans activists and therefore found it “disheartening” to go for medical treatment with a banner representing the same movement.
Barbera told DailyMail.com that she had her double mastectomy at another clinic and is recovering.
However, she does not have a GP yet after being cut off from Richmond.
The situation has been exacerbated by a recent scan that showed she had “an indeterminate age septal infarction, meaning I had a heart attack in the recent past.”
“I’m currently in Providence, St. Vincent and they couldn’t be kinder, more engaged and interested or more patient-oriented, it’s like the night of the day,” Barbera explained.
Richmond Family Medicine Clinic wrote to Barbera in late June to let her know she was no longer welcome as a patient
Barbera, 55, says she has been living in fear since she lost access to her medical provider.
In an email following the initial objection to the flag, Barbera expressed her concerns in a MyChart message to the clinic
Barbera told DailyMail.com that she had her double mastectomy at another clinic and is recovering
Although a lawyer has been in touch, Barbera says it is not yet clear to her what her next steps might be.
After the initial objection to the flag Barbara told Reduxx she had a confrontation with a member of the clinic’s reception team.
“The person insisted that I make an appointment. I have breast cancer and therefore a plethora of medical appointments, so I didn’t want to do that. They got frustrated with my ‘non-compliance’ and hung up,” she told the publication.
‘I thought it might be a mistake and called back. I was told I was “not allowed” and to speak to the previous person who had hung up. I turned this down because it didn’t go right the first time.’
Barbera believed the hostility stemmed from her objection to the flag and asked “have I hurt the feelings of the trans person?” to which the receptionist allegedly objected.
A few weeks later she received the message that she had been removed as a patient.
Barbera told Reduxx that her “anxiety is spiraling out of control,” and that the experience triggered her long-standing struggle with depression.
“I’ve had severe chronic agitated depression since I was a teenager,” Barbera said.
“I’ve been made to feel like I’m a worthless nothing,” she added.
OHSU provides trans care for children younger than fifteen years if they have permission from their parents.
“You can consent to medical care in Oregon from the age of fifteen. For that we want one or both parents to sign medical consent forms,” reads the medical provider’s page on Rans Healthcare.
“Even if teens can give their own consent, we encourage parental support and involvement.”
According to Baiz lawdoctors have the right to refuse patients medical treatment and this may be because a ‘patient is disruptive or otherwise difficult to treat’ or a doctor’s ‘personal beliefs’ prevent them from doing so.
The OHSU Family Medicine clinic said that while they are prohibited from acknowledging whether an individual is a patient, the clinic has suffered extreme harassment as a result of the reported story.
“Due to a threatening phone call, the Richmond clinic was evacuated on August 3,” a spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
Out of great caution, the clinic decided not to make in-person visits on Friday and switched to telehealth visits. Richmond kept the pharmacy open for patients who needed their medicines.
“Our dedicated staff went above and beyond to provide patients with the usual quality care, despite the unusual circumstances.”
According to an email, seen by the local news website OPBand sent to members of the AFSCME union representing OHSU workers, the threat was in response to news coverage of Barbera’s story.
“Richmond employees have endured numerous threats of harm, racial slurs, anti-LGBTQIA+ hate speech and more, to which union chapter president Michael Stewart had little to no recourse at the time.
“Richmond staff have long shared their fears of something like this happening, and now their fears and suspicions have been confirmed.”