Search results

Purpose: In the current work, we provide a portrait of heavy alcohol use, cigarette smoking, mental health, and suicide ideation by sexual orientation among a large sample of US adults aged 25 years and older.

Design/methodology/approach: We produce a repository of information on sexual orientation, substance use, mental well-being, and suicide ideation for adults aged 25 years and older using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys for nine US states from 2011 to 2018. We establish baseline differences on these outcomes for gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB), relative to heterosexual, adults and then use regression techniques to adjust the estimates for important sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and relationship status variables.

Findings: Disparities by sexual orientation across substance use, mental health, and suicide ideation are concerning, some alarmingly so. Bisexuals, particularly women, face pronounced challenges across outcomes. Sexual minority men and women report significantly more poor mental health days and much higher odds of suicide ideation. To illustrate, gay men, lesbians, and bisexual men and women, relative to their heterosexual counterparts, have odds of seriously contemplating taking their own lives that are two to four times higher even after adjusting for relevant controls.

Originality/value: Existing knowledge connecting GLB identity and mental well-being has focused largely on adolescent and young adults. We provide a representative study on older adult differences across four different behavioral health outcomes by sexual orientation. The scale of the disparities we report here, and their implications for overall well-being across groups, deserves national attention and action.

The purpose of this paper is to document the wage effects associated with sexual orientation and to examine whether the wage gap has improved following recent institutional changes which favour sexual minorities.

Ordinary least squares and quantile regressions are estimated using Australian data for 2010–2012 and 2015–2017, with the analysis disaggregated by sector of employment. Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions are used to quantify unexplained wage gaps.

Relative to heterosexual men, in 2015–2017 gay men in the public and private sectors had wages which were equivalent to heterosexual men at all points in the wage distribution. In the private sector: highly skilled lesbians experienced a wage penalty of 13 per cent; low-skilled bisexual women faced a penalty of 11 per cent, as did bisexual men at the median (8 per cent penalty). In the public sector low-skilled lesbians and low-skilled bisexual women significant experienced wage premiums. Between 2010–2012 and 2015–2017 the pay position of highly skilled gay men has significantly improved with the convergence driven by favourable wage (rather than composition) effects.

The results provide important benchmarks against which the treatment of sexual minorities may be monitored.

The analysis of the sexual minority wage gaps by sector and position on the wage distribution and insight into the effect of institutions on the wages of sexual minorities.

This paper is a conceptual discussion of the marginalisation of the voices of older lesbians, gay and bisexual (LGB) women, within the collective discourse of “older LGBT* housing”. The purpose of this paper is to critically interrogate its (in)equality implications and to consider ways in which they might be overcome.

This is a conceptual discussion that draws on the social justice model of equality developed by Nancy Fraser, specifically the domains of resources, recognition and representation.

The housing needs, wishes and concerns of older LGB women are often marginalised while at the same time those of older gay men are privileged. Older LGB women’s preferences for gender- and/or sexuality- specific housing are silenced within collective homogenising discourse – by researchers and activists alike – which mobilises a “mainstream” or “LGBT*-specific” binary about housing options.

Research findings which do not include the voices of older lesbian, gay and bisexual women are inherently flawed. There is a need to ensure their voices – across the older age spectrum – are included.

The voices of older LGB women in relation to older age housing need to be better heard so that they can be better resourced.

The marginalisation of older lesbian, gay and bisexual women’s voices in relation to older age housing has profound equality and human rights implications.

Critical discussions about the gendering of older LGBT* housing discourse are long overdue. This paper seeks to open a dialogue about these important issues.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees constitute one of the largest, but least studied, minority groups in the workforce. This article examines what we know, and what we need to know, about the career and workplace experiences of this understudied population. The construct of sexual identity is defined, followed by a review of the research on sexual orientation in the workplace. Then an analysis of the differences between LGB employees and other stigmatized groups is presented. Three unique challenges facing LGB employees are identified, and conceptual models are developed that explain underlying processes. Finally, career theories are critically analyzed, and an identity-based longitudinal theory of LGB careers is presented.

Presents the results of an investigation into effective methods of peer‐led sexual health promotion work with young gay and bisexual men. The study recruited a group of young gay and bisexual men from Southampton who underwent training to participate in a peer‐led sexual health intervention in which they conducted one‐to‐one interviews with a selection of their peers. Reports briefly on the key learning to arise from the process of recruiting and training peer educators, and in greater depth concerning the quasi‐experimental evaluation of the intervention the peer educators participated in to promote sexual health. The study found that rapport and familiarity between project workers and potential recruits aided the recruitment process, and that informal, confidence‐building activities were key factors in the effectiveness of the peer educators’ training. The peer educators were most effective in terms of information provision, but weaker on the exploration of attitudes and beliefs, or the encouragement of safer sexual behaviour. The advantages associated with the intervention included its ability to target individuals in a range of community settings, to stimulate in‐depth discussion about sexual health, to identify individual needs and to facilitate outcome evaluation over time.

This paper is partly informed by lived experience. It briefly examines general lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) mental health and some of the factors that influence the engagement of LGB people with mainstream mental health services. It discusses areas for awareness‐raising and practice development, specificially those concerning the recognition of and provision for LGB people who are from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds or who are seeking asylum in the UK.

The authors aimed to identify the nature of customer harassment against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) workers.

The authors analyzed data from in-depth interviews with 30 LGBTQ service workers in the United States who had recently experienced customer harassment.

Among various forms of customer harassment LGBTQ workers reported, some showed commonalities with previously reported cases of race-based and gender-based customer harassment. However, other cases highlighted unique aspects of LGBTQ-based customer harassment—customers morally condemned their LGBTQ identities, refused their service while displaying emotional disgust, and made sexual advances while imposing sexual stereotypes and fantasies about LGBTQ people. Experiences of customer harassment varied across subgroups of workers who had specific sexual and gender identities, and LGBTQ workers of color were harassed for their LGBTQ and racial identities simultaneously.

Past research on group-based customer harassment has focused on incidents against straight, cisgender women and workers of workers of color, but the present study identified the nature of customer harassment that targeted workers' LGBTQ status.

Purpose: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) young adults smoke at rates much higher than the general population. Young adults, in general, are less likely to seek medical help for smoking cessation and LGB individuals are less likely to seek health care generally. Alternative methods to encourage smoking cessation are necessary. This research seeks to establish whether LGB young adults in California would be willing to use social media for smoking cessation.

Approach: We conducted 41 qualitative interviews among LGB young adults in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles in Fall 2014.

Findings: The results suggest that our participants were interested in a LGB-focused social media intervention, as long as the intervention was private or anonymous and moderated. Further, across topical areas our participants spoke extensively about the import of social connections. We may be able to leverage these connections to encourage cessation.

Research Limitations: This is a qualitative, non-generalizable dataset from a fairly limited geographic area.

Public Health Implications: Online smoking cessation interventions aimed at young adults would benefit from further testing with LGB young adults to ensure efficacy among this population. In addition, states and localities concerned about young adult LGB smoking might benefit from investing in an online socially mediated cessation forum. Online interventions could be scalable and might be useful for other groups who regularly face discrimination, stigma, or other stressors that make successful smoking cessation difficult.

While the Afrocentric Worldview is established with elements of interdependence, communalism, and kinship at its foundation, many Afro (of African-descent) and African-American scholars within social science/helping-fields, such as psychology, have come to view “alternative” sexual orientations (i.e., homosexuality or bisexuality) as functional or dysfunctional solutions to problems existing in Black America. Afrocentric Worldviews include key concepts of racial and cultural survival thrusts. We must examine the marginalized subgroup of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-, and Queer (LGBTQ) individuals navigating through higher education, especially those within the Afrocentric-driven fields, such as psychology, at a Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs). This chapter discusses (1) several theoretical concepts that guide driving philosophies and academic curricula, (2) possible ramifications and experiences Black LGBTQ scholars face as they navigate through such educational contexts and (3) possible stances gay and straight scholars may take when operating under a paradigm/worldview with views that may seem counter to “alternative” sexual orientations.

Purpose: We review theory and research to suggest how research on sexual and gender minority (SGM) population health could more completely account for social class.

Approach: First, we review theory on social class, gender, and sexuality, especially pertaining to health. Next, we review research on social class among SGM populations. Then, we review 42 studies of SGM population health that accounted for one or more components of social class. Finally, we suggest future directions for investigating social class as a fundamental driver of SGM health.

Findings: Social class and SGM stigma are both theorized as “fundamental causes” of health, yet most studies of SGM health do not rigorously theorize social class. A few studies control socioeconomic characteristics as mediators of SGM health disparities, but that approach obscures class disparities within SGM populations. Only two of 42 studies we reviewed examined SGM population health at the intersections of social class, gender, and sexuality.

Research implications: Researchers interested in SGM population health would benefit from explicitly stating their chosen theory and operationalization of social class. Techniques such as splitting samples by social class and statistical interactions can help illuminate how social class and SGM status intertwine to influence health.

Originality: We synthesize theory and research on social class, sexuality, and gender pertaining to health. In doing so, we hope to help future research more thoroughly account for social class as a factor shaping the lives and health of SGM people.