Community Guidelines

SPEKTRUM Sync is a members-only community from SPEKTRUM Health, the nurse-led primary care clinic for the LGBTQA+ community. It’s a place to connect, celebrate, and look out for each other. These guidelines are how we keep it warm, safe, and ours. Everyone agrees to them before joining.

• 💜 Be kind
• 🔒 Protect privacy
• 🌈 Keep it welcoming
• 🤝 Look out for each other

Be kind

• Treat everyone with respect, even when you disagree. Disagree with ideas, not people.
• Use the names and pronouns people share. Misgendering or deadnaming someone on purpose isn’t allowed.
• No harassment, bullying, threats, slurs, or hate, including as a “joke.” That covers gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, body size, age, HIV status, and anything else about who someone is.
• Every identity belongs here, and so does every stage of figuring yours out. Don’t gatekeep or question whether someone is “queer enough” or “trans enough.”

Protect each other’s privacy

• Never out anyone. Someone’s identity, transition, relationships, and health are theirs to share.
• What’s shared here stays here. Don’t screenshot, copy, or pass along posts, photos, comments, or messages without the person’s okay.
• Don’t post anyone else’s photo or personal details, like their full name, address, workplace, or phone number, without their okay.
• Don’t try to find out who someone is outside SPEKTRUM Sync if they haven’t shared it.

Share experiences, not medical advice

• Sharing your own experiences is welcome. Only share the health details you’re comfortable with every member seeing.
• SPEKTRUM Health shares general health education here, like wellness tips and community resources. It’s for learning, not advice about your own health.
• Don’t give medical advice, diagnoses, or dosing, and don’t share, sell, or trade medications, hormones, or prescriptions. For health questions, reach out to your SPEKTRUM provider.
• SPEKTRUM Sync isn’t the Patient Portal, and SPEKTRUM Health’s clinical team doesn’t monitor it. If you’re a SPEKTRUM Health patient, use the Patient Portal for appointments, prescriptions, or anything about your care.
• Members with the SPEKTRUM Staff badge work at SPEKTRUM Health. Members with the Nurse Practitioner badge are nurse practitioners, and members with the Therapist badge are therapists. They give individual care at appointments, but not on SPEKTRUM Sync, where it wouldn’t be appropriate. Here, they may share general health education. For advice about your own health, including your mental health, reach out to your SPEKTRUM provider.
• Never share another member’s health information, even if they told you themselves.

Keep it welcoming for everyone

• If a post would need a warning, it doesn’t belong here. No sexual content or nudity, and no graphic violence, gore, or images of self-harm.
• Don’t encourage self-harm, suicide, or disordered eating. Talking about your own struggles to find support is okay, and please reach out to the crisis lines below too.
• Nothing illegal, including selling drugs or weapons.

Be real

• Be yourself. Don’t pretend to be someone else, including SPEKTRUM Health staff.
• No spam, scams, or repeated selling. Sharing a queer-owned business or a community resource now and then is welcome.
• Share information you trust, especially about health, and only post photos and content you have the right to share.
• Your account is just for you. Don’t share your sign-in.

Messages

• Direct messages follow these same guidelines.
• If someone declines your message request, doesn’t reply, or blocks you, respect it. Don’t find other ways to reach them.
• No unwanted sexual messages or photos, ever. If someone says no, that’s the answer.
• Moderators don’t look through messages. They only see messages when one is reported, and then just that message and the ones right before it.

Events and meetups

• Events posted by members are organized by those members, not by SPEKTRUM Health. Official SPEKTRUM Health events come from someone with the SPEKTRUM Staff badge.
• When you meet someone for the first time, choose a public place, tell a friend where you’ll be, and trust your instincts.
• If you host, be clear about where it is, what it costs, and how accessible it is, so everyone can decide what’s right for them.

Look out for each other

• If you see something that goes against these guidelines, report it from the ⋯ menu. The person won’t know who reported them.
• You can block other members anytime. They won’t see your posts or be able to message you. Moderators, admins, and super admins can’t be blocked, so they can always reach you about the community. If one of them treats you unfairly, report it.
• SPEKTRUM Sync is for adults 18 and older.

Need support right now? Our moderators aren’t available around the clock, so please don’t wait.

Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), call The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386, or Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860 (weekdays, 1–9 PM Eastern). In an emergency, call 911.

How moderation works

• Moderators are people SPEKTRUM Health trusts to look after this community.
• A new member’s first few posts and comments are reviewed by a moderator before they appear.
• Depending on what happened, moderators may hide a post or comment, send you a reminder, pause your posting for a day, a week, a month, or longer, or remove you from SPEKTRUM Sync.
• Serious harm, like threats, outing someone, sexual content, or harassment, can mean removal right away.

Compliance

• SPEKTRUM Health is a nonprofit organization, tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
• What members share here are their own views. They don’t represent SPEKTRUM Health, and SPEKTRUM Health doesn’t endorse them. That includes posts by members with the SPEKTRUM Staff, Nurse Practitioner, or Therapist badge, unless it’s clearly an official SPEKTRUM Health announcement.
• As a 501(c)(3) organization, SPEKTRUM Health doesn’t endorse, support, or oppose any political candidate or party, and doesn’t take part in political campaigns.
• Please don’t use SPEKTRUM Sync to campaign for or against candidates or parties, or to raise money for political campaigns. Talking about issues that affect our community is welcome, as long as it follows these guidelines.
• Links, businesses, events, and resources that members share aren’t endorsed by SPEKTRUM Health either.

Your account, your choice

• You can delete your account anytime in Account settings. If you’re a SPEKTRUM Health patient, it doesn’t affect your care or your Patient Portal.
• As our community grows, these guidelines may change. When they do, we’ll ask everyone to read and agree again.

Last updated October 9, 2026.