June 27, 2024 – Enhancing the health and well-being of the LGBTQ community necessitates increased research funding to document health disparities, comprehensive training for health professionals to address the community’s specific needs, and the implementation of policies that uphold equality, dignity, and humanity for all individuals, according to Brittany Charlton of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Charlton, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and founding director of the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence—a collaboration between Harvard Chan School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Institute—highlighted these points in a June 25 opinion piece in the Boston Globe. She emphasized that ongoing discrimination and a surge of legal, political, and societal threats are severely impacting the mental and physical health of LGBTQ individuals. She pointed to examples such as the more than 500 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures during the first half of 2024 and coordinated attacks on clinicians providing gender-affirming care.
Charlton explained that experiences of bias, rejection, hostility, and marginalization lead to “minority stress,” which adversely affects both mental and physical health. Evidence indicates that LGBTQ individuals have disproportionately high rates of mental health issues, including depression and suicide among teens, as well as physical health conditions like cancer. A recent study co-authored by Charlton revealed that lesbian and bisexual women have a 26% higher mortality rate compared to their heterosexual counterparts.
Despite a growing body of LGBTQ health research, Charlton noted that the field remains significantly understudied and underfunded. “Leaders in public health and medicine must raise our voices loudly and clearly to demand increased support and protections for the LGBTQ community,” she asserted. “Our call to action is urgent—we must secure dedicated research funding from NIH and philanthropists, train future leaders, conduct empirically grounded research, and translate our findings into actionable change.”
Read Charlton’s Boston Globe opinion piece: How to address health inequities affecting the LGBTQ community
Learn more
New center to tackle health disparities affecting LGBTQ community (Harvard Chan School news)