Pride month may be over, but at IFEP we believe it's important to recognize the triumphs of the queer community all year. As a part of our Pride in our City campaign, we had the honor of meeting and talking to members of the Pittsburgh LGBTQ+ community.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Brogan McGowan, the LGBTQ+ patient coordinator at Inclusive Aesthetics, a medical spa offering inclusive and gender affirming treatments.
IFEP: Thank you so much for talking with us today, to start off, would you tell us a little bit about Inclusive Aesthetics and what you do?
Brogan: So Inclusive Aesthetics is kind of a no brainer concept that a group of really incredible professional medical providers, estheticians, beauticians, and people who, for a number of decades now, have devoted their lives and committed their careers to supporting people in the practice of affirming their identity through the visual arts and performing arts. They’ve come together in this medical lens to create this clinic that’s really just trying to break down barriers and allow people to access cosmetic and aesthetic care that’s usually gate kept for the people who can pay out of pocket and maybe have more affluence in life.
This is a group of people who recognized that and stepped forward to say that everyone deserves education and access to this experience, and we want to make sure that’s happening at Inclusive Aesthetics.
My role there is to listen because everyone deserves access to medical care, and I want to make sure that the LGBTQ+ community in Western Pennsylvania has a voice in that.
IFEP: What are your core values at Inclusive Aesthetics, and how is that impacted by being a queer owned business.
Brogan: Well, it’s pretty simple. All of us at Inclusive Aesthetics have been in the aesthetic industry or world for a couple of decades, so our values are simple. We want people who traditionally haven’t had a voice in the industry being represented and accessing the care that we know exists and can change their lives.
So we say out loud that we love serving people who are queer. We love serving people who ae black. We love serving people who are trans. We love all bodies, and we want to make sure that everybody feels like it’s a space where they can just express themselves and talk about what it is that they need to be the person that they want to present to the world.
IFEP: Have you come across any barriers being a queer owned business in Pittsburgh?
Brogan: I am so proud to share that southwestern Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh is one of the strongest places to speak and where you can find acceptance in so many ways, and we see that at Inclusive Aesthetics. We’ve just seen how the impact of our presence in the community has allowed so many people to come out and just celebrate who they are and what it is that they want to share with other people.
IFEP: Is there anything else you would like to share with our audience?
Brogan: I hope that people who find this interview or find your project feel invited to reach out to the team at Inclusive Aesthetics. We’re an incredible community of people that want to tell everybody about what it’s like to serve people in the queer communities because it’s a really good time and we have a blast doing it. We wouldn’t want to operate a business in any other way besides creating a safe space for queer and people with other marginalized identities. Give us a call and let’s all keep building up space together.
To learn more about Inclusive Aesthetics and their services, go to inclusiveaestheticsspa.com/.