New introductions of sexual orientation measures in some of the health surveillance surveys addressed by the states and federal governments, are allowing for population-based information analysis regarding sexual minorities, and their health, along with its status relative to that of the heterosexual majority. Very few studies have successfully been able to investigate variability in health conditions by sexual orientation, especially the ones that involve sexual orientation as well as other important social characteristics including ethnicity, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. However, research suggests heterogeneity within sexual minorities health. For example, lesbians who participated in the National Survey of Family Growth were more likely to be overweight than were hetero ladies, however the same was not true regarding cross-sexual women. Bisexual ladies and gay male members in the California Quality of Life Survey were more likely to report digestive issues than were their same-sex, hetero peers, but lesbians and androgynous men were not.
In the United States, most of the research that has been conducted on sexual minorities has been led using convenience sampling. Even though huge contributions have been made to research through these studies, information that has been gathered using nonprobability tests have limited access for health planning for the general public, as a result of concerns in regards to determination predisposition and outer legitimacy.
This was noted as an important topic because for racial minorities, strong ethnic identity is an important protective factor in their lives. Simply, for highly marginalized groups, strong ethnic identity may serve as a protective factor by helping racially marginalized groups resist internalizing negative self-images and associated risk behaviors based on their racial membership and minority status (Sellers, Caldwell, Schmeelk-Cone, & Zimmerman, 2003). Researchers felt that this study was important because many studies have previously examined whether ethnic identity is related to self-reported sexual risk behaviors. For instance, among a sample of mostly adult African American, Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander gay males, no relationship was found between ethnic identity and risky sexual behaviors (Chng & Gelia-Vargas, 2000). Also, prior investigations have determined that higher ethnic identity was associated with a lower number of unsafe sexual acts during the past four months among African American women (Beadnell et al.,
The census does not ask directly what a person’s sexual orientation is, instead, the census records people who report being in a same-sex-partnered household,” (Mcdermott, 2014). Some couples and people go undocumented and don’t report their sexual orientation because they don’t have to report it. This causes the reports and official data to be missing pieces and incomplete so that some people aren’t included and the study can’t be complete. “Social scientists have established that gay men are more likely to work as teachers, nurses, secretaries, and other jobs that are traditionally female dominated and which don’t pay very well. Additionally, nearly 40 percent of all homeless youth are LGBT, putting them at a great economic disadvantage,” (Mcdermott, 2014). The female jobs that don’t pay as well that gay men choose to have as a profession can lead to less income and profit. Homeless LGBT are usually kicked out and forced to fend for themselves and usually end up homeless or a cycle of being this way for a long time.
To start this article Mays and Cochran discuss how recently there have been surveys that have looked for a correlation between mental health disorders and sexual orientation. They then state that their survey will expand upon this idea to try and discover if perceived discrimination, sexual orientation, and mental health are related. Mays and Cochran conducted this research through a survey and questionnaire.
There are many issues that have arrived in our culture that may conflict with a traditional viewpoint. Day by day, I see people parting from conservative life styles to those that are flamboyant and boisterous. I can’t pin point just one group or sector of people, beliefs, or ideologies that is morally altering the future generations; but I will expound on sexual orientation and how it affect us, socially, emotionally, and politically.
Other factors contributing to LGBT health disparity is the lack of access to care. Different states have different laws regarding to LGBT population, and some of the laws make it difficult for LGBT to get insurance through their partners. Without health insurance many of these people only gets medical treatments on emergency basis. Per Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality “ 19 % of LGBT had been refused treatment by a doctor or other provider because of their transgender or gender nonconforming status,”(AHRQ, 2011). Taking into consideration the level of sexually transmitted disease, drug use, suicidal rate, obesity, and their prevalence among LGBT population, healthcare organizations needs to incorporate better strategies, and open the door to better policies that facilitates access to
Health disparities in the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender community that lack fair treatment. This population deals with many adversities due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBT’s community consists of a diverse population of people who come from all walks of life ((Howard, 2016). Many LBGT’s will delay or not seek health care due to stigma and lack of fair treatment. In other words, they believe that they are discriminated against.
Lack of culturally competent (CC) healthcare within lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities, poses a severe threat to the health of LGBT individuals, due to the increase in negative health outcomes. These negative outcomes consist of an increased rate of depression, suicide, anxiety, smoking, alcohol use, and sexually transmitted infections (Garbers, Heck, Gold, Santelli, & Bersamin, 2017; Mayer, Bradford, Makadon, Stall, Goldhammer, & Landers, 2008). The lack of cultural knowledge is detrimental to the individual, with cases linked to improper diagnosis,
in 2010, it was found that out of 3134 young homosexual Australians, ‘‘61 per cent had suffered
Moreover, a recent study by Agénor et al. (2017) reports that compared to heterosexual women, self-identified bisexual women are less likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and a higher prevalence of being enrolled in a public health insurance plan, and live below 200% of the federal poverty line (FPL). Whereas, the study found
These factors that surround them is probably why bisexual students drink more often and abuse prescription medication, which lead negative outcomes (Oswalt, 2009). In Spring of 2009, a total of 87105 people with a median age of 21 year old and an average age of 22.33 +/- 5.71 years, were analyzed to see if there is a difference between gender and sexual orientation nonmedical use of prescription drugs. In this survey, there were several variables that were measured. The measured variables were gender, sexual orientation, whether they used nonmedical prescription drugs, and whether they had substance abuse. Data was taken from college students from 75 public schools and 42 private schools. The data shows that out of 117 schools that were surveyed eighty-five percent was an online survey while the last fifteen percent was paper and pencil administered. Out of the total number of people sampled, 63% were female and 37% were male. 93.1% of the people said they were heterosexual while 2.4% said they were either gay or a lesbian and 2.9% said that they were
Many parents voice a fear about their child learning about gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. They think that hearing, seeing, or learning these things will influence their child. According to research, however, no matter how often children are exposed to these topics they still will make their own decisions later on in life on the matter. Often parents are upset when they hear their children are learning about these terms because they do not know the dictionaries definitions for these words are. According to webster; gender is the state of being male or female, the word typically used to reference social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. Gender identity is a person’s perception of having a particular gender that may not correspond with the sex they were given at birth. Sexual orientation is a person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted. Many times a person’s sexual orientation can be labeled as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. Diversity is an important lesson to teach children especially at a young age. To understand how to best teach diversity about gender in a classroom background information, teaching strategies, and student’s understanding of diversity is important.
There are many minorities in the United States of America making it one of the largest melting pots in the world. Unfortunately, due to the vast variety of people, there are many minorities that lack the proper access to healthcare resources that cater to their healthcare needs both mentally and physically. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community, also known as the LGBT community, face many hurdles when it comes to receiving the proper healthcare. They also encompass many different races, religions, ethnicities and social classes. According to a recent national and state-level population-based surveys, “8 million adults in the US are lesbian, gay, or bisexual, comprising 3.5% of the adult population” (Gates, 2011). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people face many challenges and barriers accessing the proper health services. Many of the challenges the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community faces stems from
Gender and sexual orientation is a topic that has been and still today is not talked about in such a way it should be because of how society has chosen to structure and control it. Social stratification is a system in which groups of people are divided up into layers according to their relative privileges (power, property, and prestige). It’s a way of ranking large groups of people into a hierarchy according to their relative privileges (Vela-McConnell 2016). People, who deviate from the norm of the “accepted” gender and sexual orientation that society has placed upon us, are stratified below the norm of a dominating binary gender and sexual orientation. People who are queer face the struggle of mistreatment and an unaccepting society that has been socialized to see and act on gender and sexual orientation to being a dualistic system.
Within the last decade society has become more open to ideology and lifestyles that years ago were tabo. This is largely due to the fact that the millennial generation may be one of the most laid back and accepting generations of all time. One major lifestyle that was rarely expected was homosexuality within the last decade this issue is no longer in the closet. Most people feel comfortable being open about their lifestyle choice and even show it off. Shortly after the acceptance of gays by society a new issue presented itself and this is transgender people. The community as whole fights for their rights together and it is referred to as LGBTQ. LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, transgender, bisexual, and queer. The LGBTQ community has made great progress in the last decade they have become more open about their community and have gained rights that they should have always had. Even though the community has made progress they still have a long way way to go especially within the workplace.
In today’s day in age, different sexualities and gender identities are quickly becoming more accepted in mainstream society. Despite this change, there are many people who believe that having a different sexual orientation or gender identity is a choice that is frowned upon. In order to refute this belief, research and biology of the brain is necessary. Researching the brain on the basis of sexuality is a fairly new topic of discussion because it is somewhat difficult and confusing. This paper will explore the different identities of gender, sex and sexual orientation and the main biological reasons behind these. There is also some validity of different sexual orientations and identities through the evidence of sexual disorders like