John C. Nelson is a

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

who served as president of the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...

Tenure as president

While president of the American Medical Association in 2005, he was quoted supporting New York Medical College's decision to ban a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

student group. The college is affiliated with New York's

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

archdiocese. He later said his remarks were misrepresented. The AMA officially came out against the ban. Following Nelson's comments, the

Gay and Lesbian Medical Association GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality (GLMA) is an association of LGBTQ+ and allied health professionals in the United States. Its members include interdisciplinary health professionals, such as physicians, nurses, physician assoc ...

requested a meeting with the AMA leadership regarding his comments and the NYMC decision. According to the AMA, Nelson apologized for his comments and gave his support for addressing issues important to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) physicians. The AMA agreed to include LGBT health in its Commission to End Health Care Disparities, which had previously focused on race and ethnicity.American Medical Association "Joint statement of the AMA and Gay and Lesbian Medical Association" 15 March 2005. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/14847.html Nelson was succeeded as AMA president by Edward Hill. In 2008, Nelson was appointed to th
Whole Child Committee
for the national children's charity Operation Kids.

References

20th-century American physicians Sexual orientation and medicine Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Presidents of the American Medical Association {{US-physician-stub