Health

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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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Two new cases of more-infectious mpox strain found in UK

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Two new cases of a more-infectious strain of mpox have been detected in the UK, health officials have said. The new cases come after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced at the end of last month that a single case of Clade 1b mpox had been detected in the country. Mpox, formerly known as Monkeypox, was first declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in July 2022 after the number of cases suddenly increased in Europe and the Americas, particularly affecting gay, bisexual and other men-who-have-sex-with-men. In August, WHO again declared the disease a world health emergency, after a new strain – […]

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Intersex youth have worse mental health, and ‘harmful’ nonconsensual surgeries may play a part

Intersex young people struggle with their mental health at higher rates than their peers, and how they’re treated by their families and doctors seems to play a part.  Over half of intersex LGBTQ+ youth (55 percent) reported seriously considering suicide in the past year, according to a new report from the Trevor Project, compared to 39 percent of endosex LGBTQ+ youth — those who do not have an intersex condition.  There are several factors that could be contributing to this disparity, says lead author Jonah DeChants, including a “combination of stigma and misplaced shame and embarrassment among individuals and researchers as well.” “Historically, intersex identities have been […]

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The election could push LGBTQ+ mental health to the edge. Queer activists are fighting for a lifeline.

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Anti-trans legislation sweeping the country is proving deadly.  A recent study determined that such laws increased suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth by as much as 72%. And that’s just one instance of how LGBTQ+ mental health is on the ballot this election.  Studies overwhelmingly show that queer people are disproportionately likely to experience depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation or to engage in self-harming behaviors, particularly LGBTQ+ youth. According to the Trevor Project, 41% of queer youth considered taking their own lives within the past year, and an estimated 60% say they were not able to access treatment to care for their […]

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LGBTQ+ people are at a higher risk of ‘adverse brain health:’ study

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LGBTQ+ people are at a noticeably higher risk of “adverse brain health outcomes” in comparison to their straight and cisgender peers — and discrimination could be having an impact.  LGBTQ+ adults are at a 15 percent higher risk of composite brain health outcomes, including dementia, strokes, and late-life depression, according to a new study published in Neurology. Transgender women in particular were found to have higher odds of having strokes. The study examined data from 393,041 participants with available information on sexual orientation and gender identity, of whom 39,632 (10 percent) identified as some form of LGBTQ+, with 38,528 (97 percent) belonging to a sexual minority […]

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Homophobic “locker room” talk hurts straight boys more than gay boys

Team sports are generally regarded to have positive benefits for kids, from gaining a new skill to socialization. However, there are some negatives associated with sports teams, particularly boys’ sports teams, when a culture of toxic masculinity and anti-LGBTQ+ language is present.  A study by Fordham University has shown that when youth are exposed to anti-LGBTQ+ language, it greatly harms them, unsurprisingly. However, the data also showed that it was not young queer children who are the most impacted by anti-LGBTQ+ language in athletic environments. It was young, straight white boys. Locker room talk with homophobic undertones, phrases like “man up” or […]

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Ron DeSantis bans Florida’s sex ed classes from mentioning anatomy & contraceptives

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The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) has ordered local school districts to submit their sex education plans to the state for approval. The FLDOE has also said the classes must promote abstinence and cannot include discussion of contraception or pictures of reproductive health organs. The sex-ed takeover removes local discretion when it comes to district sex education classes and materials. For some time, Florida law has mandated that sex-ed lessons emphasize the “benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy” for grades 6 through 12. But now the state has removed any local control […]

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