Health

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Anti-LGBTQ+ policies harm the health of not only LGBTQ+ people, but all Americans

In 2024, state legislatures introduced an all-time record of 533 bills targeting LGBTQ+ populations. These policies create a patchwork of legal landscapes that vary widely between and within states, affecting aspects of everyday life ranging from how kids learn and play to where adults live and work.  All of these policies have implications for the health of not only LGBTQ+ people but also the general public. I am a health policy researcher who studies how state and federal legislation affect public health. Research has shown that the social determinants of health – the opportunities and resources that affect how people live, learn, play, work and age […]

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Doctors Group Sues Over Removal Of Health Websites

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A medical advocacy group on Tuesday sued the main U.S. health agencies over the sudden removal of websites containing public health information in response to an executive order by President Donald Trump targeting what his administration deemed to be “gender ideology extremism.” Doctors for America said in the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. federal court, that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed “numerous” longstanding websites since the order. Those include a page on behavioral health risks among youth, which the lawsuit says is important for understanding health challenges faced by young people, including bullying and vaping; […]

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Health and Human Services takes stand against nonconsensual intersex surgeries

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released its first reporton health equity for intersex people, opposing nonconsensual surgeries on this population and making recommendations for best practices. There is “growing evidence that surgical interventions on intersex infants can cause lasting harm, including stigma and medical mistrust,” says the report, titled “Advancing Health Equity for Intersex Individuals.” It comes from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, which is headed by Adm. Rachel Levine, the first out transgender official confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The report notes that being intersex is not synonymous with being trans or nonbinary, although some intersex people may also identify as nonbinary or […]

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Supreme Court will decide if insurance companies must cover PrEP for HIV prevention, cancer screenings

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TheU.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a pivotal case that could significantly impact access to preventivehealth care under the Affordable Care Act, including life-saving HIV prevention drugs like pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP. The court granted the petition on Friday. The case, which the federal government petitioned for the court’s intervention, is set to be argued this spring, with a decision expected before the Court’s term ends in June. The Advocate was the first to report on the existence of this case back in 2022 when it was revealed that conservative attorney Jonathan Mitchell was representing Braidwood Management, Inc., aTexas-based business, and other plaintiffs in challenging the ACA’s requirement […]

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CDC Warns COVID Rates Have Tripled In Recent Weeks

CNN reports: In the week ending December 21, there was nearly three times as much Covid-19 circulating in the US than there was during the week ending December 7, CDC data shows. This surge happened in all regions of the country, but there has been a particularly sharp uptick in the Midwest, where Covid-19 levels are nearly twice as high as they are in other parts of the country. Some experts worry that the rapid rise after an unusually long lull could have left many people vulnerable to disease spread at the height of the holiday season. Read the full article.

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As HHS secretary, RFK Jr. would be a direct threat to LGBTQ+ health

Among Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, it’s hard to choose who is the most dangerous to LGBTQ+ rights. But it’s easy to pick out who is the most dangerous to LGBTQ+ health: Robert Kennedy Jr. As the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kennedy has the potential to make literal life-and-death decisions about the nation’s health. But his crackpot ideas are a direct threat to the very issues that can matter most to the LGBTQ+ community.  Much has been made of Kennedy’s conspiracy-ridden, fringe beliefs. He believes that vaccines cause autism, even though abundant evidence has shown no […]

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Experts detail what LGBTQ+ healthcare may look like under Donald Trump’s new administration

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With President-elect Donald Trump just under two months away from taking office and a slew of troubling cabinet appointments making headlines — including anti-vax crank Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary — LGBTQ+ Americans are understandably concerned about what a second Trump administration will mean for our rights and healthcare. In a recent interview with the Washington Blade, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) director of HIV and health equity Torrian Baskerville acknowledged the fears many LGBTQ+ people, particularly those who are Black, trans, and/or living with HIV, are experiencing around healthcare in light of both Trump’s rhetoric […]

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Gays vape at significantly higher rates, surgeon general’s report finds

As vaping’s popularity endures, a report issued by the surgeon general’s office Tuesday shows that LGBTQ Americans are among those helping to keep smoke shops in business. The surgeon general’s 837-page report on tobacco use found that 37.8% of gay, lesbian and bisexual U.S. adults have tried electronic cigarettes, compared with just 16.5% of their straight counterparts. Electronic cigarettes, also known as e-cigarettes, include e-cigars, e-pipes, e-hookahs, vaping pens and hookah pens. When broken down further, the data, collected from 2019 to 2021, found nearly half of bisexual adults have tried e-cigarettes, compared with 31.8% of gay men and 26.7% of lesbians. […]

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California confirms first case of even more deadly mpox strain

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California has confirmed the first case of a new, more lethal strain of mpox in a man who recently traveled to Africa, and public health officials now want to speak with anyone who may met the person. The new mpox clade I strain has a higher mortality rate than the earlier clade IIb strain that caused a global outbreak in 2022 and greatly impacted gay men. The World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency over the spread of the clade I mpox strain in August after the number of cases exploded in Africa. “The California Department of Public […]

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Sudden syphilis retreat in gay men is most likely tied to preventive antibiotic use

The public health workforce tasked with fighting what has been a long-losing battle against sexually transmitted infections now finds itself confronted with a new, unfamiliar outlook: hope. After having surged to record levels practically every year this century, overall diagnoses of the three top bacterial STIs have crested since the Covid pandemic. From 2022 to 2023, total diagnoses decreased by 2%, to 2.46 million new cases, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention STI surveillance report published Tuesday. And importantly, diagnoses of primary and secondary syphilis — the most infectious stages of the infection — dropped 10% last year, […]

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