Advancing Health Equity: Dr. Temor (Tay) Amin-Arsala’s Innovative Policy Leadership in LGBTQ+ Data Collection

During June 2025, Clinical Assistant Professor Temor (Tay) Amin-Arsala, OT, OTD, OTR, wrote a policy entitled, Need for Collection of LGBTQ+ Data, for GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTW+ Equality. The policy highlights the importance of multiple sources of reliable data for LGBTQ+ health in the current socio-political climate. 

GLMA is a national organization dedicated to ensuring health equity for LGBTQ+ communities, as well as for LGBTQ+ health professionals. GLMA’s work focuses on the domains of research, advocacy, and education. 

Dr. Amin Arsala has served on GLMA’s Policy and Governance Committee since November 2024. Their appointment reflects the organization’s strategic commitment to interdisciplinary representation within healthcare professions. Dr. Amin-Arsala’s contributions to this committee are grounded in their clinical expertise as well as their extensive advocacy experience. From 2019 to 2025, Dr. Amin-Arsala served as the Massachusetts State Representative to the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA) Representative Assembly, positioning them to bring occupational therapy perspectives to GLMA’s policy deliberations.

Research indicates that many LGBTQ+ individuals avoid or delay healthcare utilization due to perceived or experienced discrimination. The Need for Collection of LGBTQ+ Data policy emphasizes the need to research how cultural humility is being taught to healthcare professionals in order to find ways to combat the discrimination this community often faces. Dr. Amin-Arsala hopes their policy will inform LGBTQ+ advocacy efforts in the political arena to bring about systemic change. 

Dr. Amin-Arsala has established a substantial record of policy scholarship in LGBTQ+ health equity. They served as primary author for two AOTA policies, published in 2020 and 2021, addressing the affirmation of gender identity and sexual orientation within occupational therapy practice and healthcare delivery systems. Presently, Dr. Amin-Arsala is working on an additional two policies: one that problematizes the incorrect assumption that LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely to be involved in cases of sexual abuse, and another that focuses on available supports for unhoused LGBTQ+ youth.