Sexual Orientation refers to a person’s sexual interest. This includes lesbians, gays, bisexuals and those who are transgendered (LGBT). According to the National Coalition for LGBT Health, LGBT youth are more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual youth, LGBT people are more likely to have poor health due to their reluctance to seek care from health providers, and gay men and lesbian women are at an increased risk for certain cancers such as lung, cervical, breast, and anal cancer, due to a higher prevalence of smoking and inadequate risk assessments. Furthermore, HIV/AIDS continues to wreck havoc among the LGBT population. These are just some of the health disparities experienced by the LGBT communities.
In response to these disparities the Healthy People 2010 Companion Document for LGBT Health was developed. This document stated specific health-related policy recommendations in the hopes to reduce the disparities experienced by the LGBT communities. Some of these recommendations included that of prohibiting federal funded organizations from discriminating against LGBT individuals, incorporating LGBT cultural competence into the training of all health professionals, designating the LGBT population as a “special population” of concern by federal health agencies, targeting the LGBT population in regards to smoking cessation health promotion campaigns, and increasing national surveys in regards to health to better identify the LGBT populations’ health status, among other things.
