Jaime Lazich (they / them / 'em)

Queer and trans freelance writer writing about LGBTQ+ healthcare, among other things. 

Queer Kentucky: LGBTQ+ Culture, News, Health, Gov •

Gender-affirming care in Kentucky: What’s available and where to find it - Queer Kentucky

It comes as no surprise to say that the Kentucky LGBTQ+ community has been under a series of relentless attacks lately. Gender affirming care is no longer available to trans and gender diverse youth in the state. Medicaid cannot be used for gender affirming care. And Trump’s just-passed Big Beautiful Bill further cuts Medicaid and healthcare funding for millions of people. It’s no exaggeration to say that these laws and rulings have a catastrophic effect on our community. 
It’s more important th...
Queer Kentucky: LGBTQ+ Culture, News, Health, Gov •

Portals & Poems: Photographer Trish Gibson on capturing Appalachian grief - Queer Kentucky

It was a Thursday afternoon and I could hear Trish Gibson fiddle with something on the other end of the line, “I’ve put so many resources and energy into keeping this dog healthy,” they said as they prepared a toy puzzle of sorts for their 14 year-old Corgi-Shepherd mix, Delilah. “She’s obsessed with near-constant stimuli whenever she’s awake.”
Gibson is a photographer and writer living in Lexington, and is no stranger to tenacity. Gibson grew up in northeast Tennessee, and has spent much of th...
VICE •

HIV Rates Are Surging in Georgia. The GOP Governor Is Blocking Patients from Medicaid.

Barry Sermons was diagnosed with HIV in 2003. In 2008, he lost his health insurance when the market crashed and his wife Roni lost her job. Sermons was able to cobble together care as a patient at a Ryan White clinic, which sees many HIV positive Georgians with no or limited health insurance. But then Roni was diagnosed with breast cancer.  “She had a minor surgery and some radiation, and no chemo at that point. She went into remission for four years. Then it came back. By the time she died she...
HuffPost •

I Had My Breasts Removed. I Didn't Realize It Would Affect Me The Way It Did.

I was at my first post-op appointment, three days after my top surgery. I was struck by the normality of my chest. It felt so familiar, a seamless accompaniment to the rest of me. My chest was there the whole time, waiting to be uncovered under the weight of what was piled on top. Like excavating a fossil in the earth. There it was. There I am.

I was at my first post-op appointment, three days after my top surgery. I was struck by the normality of my chest. It felt so familiar, a seamless accom...
Queer Kentucky: LGBTQ+ Culture, News, Health, Gov •

Why queers experience increased risk of substance abuse, regional resources that can help - Queer Kentucky

Being queer is a liberatory experience. We reject norms handed down to us through our power to construct our own lives, selves, bodies, families and communities. Such flagrant displays of freedom threaten power structures that depend on the status quo. Driven by fear of dismantlement, those in power move to silence disruptors at any cost. So the world tries to convince us that we do not exist, or that we do not deserve basic rights, much less a thriving sense of belonging. This psychic friction...
Queer Kentucky: LGBTQ+ Culture, News, Health, Gov •

Gender Affirming Care is safe. Why do Kentucky legislators want to ban it? - Queer Kentucky

Kentucky lawmakers are really digging their heels in on their gross anti-trans agenda. Alongside fast-moving sports bans HB 23 and SB 83, this year legislators have introduced bills HB 253 and SB 84. The new wave of legislation aims to ban healthcare practitioners from providing gender affirming care for trans minors, and even giving a referral for the care. 


The bills’ name, “Kentucky’s Children Deserve Help Not Harm Act”, signals that gender affirming care is dangerous. A wealth of research...
Medium •

Amy Schneider is Blowing Shit Up

My parents love Jeopardy. I grew up watching it with them and when I visit Kentucky we watch it together. Otherwise, I do not watch this show. My current income (of nothing) makes my streaming capabilities somewhat limited (yes I am 34 and still on my parents’ Netflix account) and means I can in no way justify buying an arcane TV antenna.But I was in Kentucky recently, with my family, watching Jeopardy. And I witnessed the beginning of Amy Schneider’s winning streak. It was electrifying. Her spe...
Smiley Pete Publishing •

Great American Brass Band Festival

Photo furnished.In a category of its very own making, Danville’s Great American Brass Band Festival (GABBF) is entering its 27th year as the only brass band festival of its kind. A Kentucky original, the festival offers four days of free music, art, and events at various Danville venues. Staffed by a small work-force of two part-time employees who work year-round to plan the festival, with a couple hundred community volunteers pitching in at the the event itself, the festival draws an average of...
Smiley Pete Publishing •

No Joke: Lexington’s expanding local comedy scene leaves no shortage of laughs

In less than a year, the city has seen a marked increase in locally organized live local humor; perhaps leading the cause is a new monthly series at Al’s Bar organized by local comedy enthusiasts Tony Manuel and Chuck Clenney. Rising from the ashes of the No-to-Low Expectations Comedy Night, another (now-defunct) series highlighting local amateur comics, Al’s Comedy Series has not only mobilized local and regional comics, but also has provided a central space and new audience for Lexington’s sta...