Lgbt Awareness

LGBT Health Awareness

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community is very diverse. LGBT individuals are not a uniform group. They are shaped by a range of factors including race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographical location and age. These differences make it hard to target one specific “population” for this group of people. Part of the reason it is hard to track this population is because Sexual orientation and gender identity questions are not asked on most national or State surveys, making it difficult to estimate the number of LGBT individuals and their health needs (Centers For Disease Control, 2011).

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals have particular vulnerabilities to sexually transmitted infections and HIV infection. Globally, reasons for this include physiological factors, discrimination and poor understanding of their sexual health needs. In many countries LGBT individuals are not able to exercise fully their rights to health care. This raises public health concerns for the LGBT community and the wider population. The US Department of Health identifies the following areas as risk factors to the LGBT community:

* Suicide prevention and awareness for LGBT youth.

* LGBT youth are more likely to be homeless.

* Lesbians are less likely to get preventive services for cancer.

* Gay men are at higher risk of HIV and other STDs, especially among communities of color.

* Lesbians and bisexual females are more likely to be overweight or obese.

* Transgender individuals have a high prevalence of HIV/STDs, victimization, mental health issues, and suicide and are less likely to have health insurance than heterosexual or LGB individuals.

* Elderly LGBT individuals face additional barriers to health because of isolation and a lack of social services and culturally competent providers.

* LGBT populations have the highest rates of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use.

(U.S. Department of...