LGBT people have unique health needs – and face unique challenges when accessing the care they need. In New York, the team at Empire State Pride Agenda has been working for years to meet the needs and address the challenges faced by LGBT New Yorkers. Just this week, they released a new report that will improve the health and well-being of the state’s LGBT community for years to come.

The report is the first comprehensive look at the health disparities facing LGBT people living in New York City. We caught up with Mel King, Network Coordinator at Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), to learn more about the report and ESPA’s continued work on LGBT health.

Tell us about the report. What is its purpose?
The report outlines data collected by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn approached us with data pools that had not been released. We recognized the importance of data collection and sharing when it comes to securing resources for our community.

This report is groundbreaking in that it’s the first to examine how race, ethnicity, gender, poverty, and age affect the health of the LGBT communities. In its intersectional approach, it looks at the multiplicity of identities that LGBT people in New York City have.

The report reveals inequities in everything from eating disorders, school safety, and partner violence to suicide risk, access to medical care, tobacco use among youth, and more. It also includes recommendations to right-size the stark imbalances, including the urgent need to collect data on gender identity and expression and in areas outside of New York City.

How was the report developed?
We reached out to Strength in Numbers who did some intense mining of the data and made us binders with hundreds of graphs that illustrated findings from the Community Health Survey and Youth Risk Behavior Survey. We spent a good amount of time pulling the most interesting, relevant, and actionable graphs, and from that the Health Disparities Report was created.

What are the key findings from the report?
This report really brings to light the intersectional analysis that many of us with social justice backgrounds know about -- but it’s really driven home by this data.

Safety and Violence:

• Nearly one in five white lesbian and gay students (18.4 percent) have missed school due to “feeling unsafe” in the last 30 days)
• Both male and female students who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are more likely to miss school than their heterosexual counterparts, suggesting that both young women and young men may be targets of homophobic bullying
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual students are at greater risk for intimate partner violence and sexual assault when compared to their heterosexual counterparts

Healthy Weight and Physical Activity:

• Gay, lesbian and bisexual young people are at high risk for bulimic symptoms, especially young gay men; one in five have vomited or used laxatives for weight control in the past 30 days
• Black lesbian, gay and bisexual youth have a lower rate of physical activity than their white and heterosexual counterparts
• 35.7 percent of Black LGB adults are obese compared to 10.3 percent of white LGB adults

Mental Health

• In both male and female students, LGB youth are more likely to attempt suicide
• Nearly one quarter (24.4 percent) of Latino LGB people have recently experienced mental distress, nearly double their heterosexual counterparts
• Older LGB adults experience depression almost twice as often than their heterosexual counterparts

Smoking and Asthma

• Almost half (49 percent) of white LGB youth smoke compared to just 17.1 percent of their heterosexual counterparts
• Those who are gay or lesbian adults and in poverty are particularly likely to have an asthma diagnosis (22.8 percent) or a recent attack (12.3 percent)

Access to Care

• LGB adults in poverty are much less likely to access health care than their heterosexual counterparts with similar, limited resources
• 31.2 percent of gay and lesbian people, and 26 percent of bisexual people, in poverty lack health insurance
• Fewer than half of 18-24 year old lesbian and gay women have ever had a pap test, compared with two-thirds of heterosexual women in that age group

What recommendations does ESPA have for beginning to address the disparities detailed in the report?
The findings of this report have shaped the following recommendations:

• Continue to collect and analyze data on lesbian, gay and bisexual youth and adults
• Collect data on gender identity (transgender/not transgender) on all public surveys
• Continue to implement and evaluate the Dignity for All Students Act to ensure that all students, including LGBT students, never miss school because they are subject to or afraid of violence
• Provide funding for programs that address intimate partner violence and sexual assault prevention for LGBT youth
• Build educational programs addressing eating disorders among young gay and bisexual men
• Provide opportunities for LGBT people of color to exercise and practice healthy eating behaviors in all areas of New York City
• Create access to culturally competent mental health care for black and Latino/a LGBT people, particularly in areas where Black and Latino/a people live, such as the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and upper Manhattan
• Provide LGBT-specific services and assure mainstream providers are LGBT friendly in all neighborhoods of New York City

Click here to download the report.