STATEMENT: CAP’s Kellan Baker on the NIH’s Formal Designation of the LGBT Population as a Health Disparity Population

Washington, D.C. — Kellan Baker, Senior Fellow with the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement after the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, announced that it is formally designating the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, population as a health disparity population for purposes of NIH-supported research:

As LGBT people become more visible in America, assaults on their dignity, health, and well-being are on the rise. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, LGBT people face serious disparities in health indicators such as HIV infection, experience of abuse and violence, and mental health concerns. These disparities are then exacerbated by discrimination at the hands of health care providers. Discrimination and disparities are especially harmful to LGBT communities of color and others who live at the intersections of multiple marginalized communities.

Today’s announcement from the NIH gives LGBT health disparities research a permanent home at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, or NIMHD, which supports groundbreaking research to crack the code of health disparities and improve the health of America’s most vulnerable communities. Research on topics such as transgender health, mental and behavioral health, cancer, HIV, and how to collect more and better data on sexual orientation and gender identity is critical to understanding and ending LGBT health disparities.

Related resources:

• Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data Collection in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System by Kellan Baker and Margaret Hughes
• The Medicaid Program and LGBT Communities: Overview and Policy Recommendations by Kellan Baker, Ashe McGovern, Sharita Gruberg, and Andrew Cray
• The Case for Designating LGBT People as a Medically Underserved Population and as a Health Professional Shortage Area Population Group by the Center for American Progress, The Fenway Institute, GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality, and the Human Rights Campaign

For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Tom Caiazza at tcaiazza@americanprogress.org or 202.481.7141.