27 | Transgender, Queer | He/Him/His
As the Trans Services Division Manager at Metro Inclusive Health, Lucas Wehle fights for the LGBTQ community daily.
Through the health care organization’s many services, he and his team of peers connect members of the transgender community to essential resources. His role with the company began four years ago, when he was hired to expand Metro’s transgender and youth programming. Wehle served as coordinator for their youth program for more than a year until the organization identified a need for a more comprehensive approach. He became their transgender care navigator, bridging the gap between clients and services.
In June 2018, Wehle saw a need to expand Metro’s offerings again. “I went to upper management to discuss what I felt was a huge need for having a specific department focused on the needs of the trans community,” he recalls. “So we developed the Trans Services Division and I became the manager.”
Metro revolutionized its transgender health care with the division, streamlining their approach to offer letters of recommendation for patients seeking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), group and individual counseling, transgender-focused primary care, pharmacy and prescription services and lab work. They also expanded their medical directory and referral services, centralizing the organization’s approach to meeting medical, social and legal needs.
Wehle and his team have seen a tremendous response to Metro’s expansion of services from Tampa Bay’s transgender community. “In 2016, we had 64 HRT clients,” he says. “In almost exactly three years, we now have over 950, and that’s just HRT care alone—not counting those who are in primary care or partaking in our other services.”
In addition to Wehle’s work with Metro, where he also provides inclusivity training to physical education departments throughout Tampa Bay’s schools, he also helped found the St. Petersburg chapter of PFLAG in 2017. He says the organization—which exists to support members of the LGBTQ community, their families and their allies—gave him early purpose. He proudly remains involved today.
“I’m very fortunate,” Wehle says. “I get to come to work and help other people—it’s all that I ever wanted to do. I’m so grateful to have found my place and to meet what I feel is my calling. Helping other people helps me as well.”
