Gender & Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) are school‐based clubs that support youth of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. As identity‐centered spaces, GSAs could also foster discussions related to race and immigration (i.e., race and immigration talk). We conducted semi‐structured interviews from 2016 to 2018 with 38 GSA members (ages 13–20 years old) of diverse racial/ethnic, immigrant‐origin (first and second generations in the United States born of immigrant parents), sexual orientation, and gender identities. Race and immigration talk often occurred when discussing current events (e.g., the 2016 US Presidential Election). Students reported that race and immigration talk depended on representation (i.e., GSA demographics), if it was deemed personally relevant to members, and whether students perceived issues of race and immigration as part of the agenda of the GSA. Some students indicated motivation to discuss racism and nativism yet refrained from doing so due to discomfort or fear of misspeaking. Overall, youth primarily viewed the GSA as a space for LGBTQIA+‐oriented discussions and support yet expressed potential for fostering productive race and immigration talk in GSAs given the ongoing US sociopolitical climate. Discussions facilitated by advisors focusing on inter‐connected oppression (e.g., intersections of racism and heterosexism) and that leverage brave space discussion dynamics may help students develop competencies to engage in race and immigration talk.

San Diego, California is consistently ranked among regions with the highest rates of homelessness in the United States. From 2016 to 2018, San Diego experienced an unprecedented outbreak of hepatitis A virus (HAV), largely attributed in media and public health discourse to the region’s growing population of people experiencing homelessness. Little attention, however, was devoted to examining the experiences and needs of this population, particularly transitional aged youth (TAY, aged 18–24) experiencing homelessness who may have been uniquely affected by the outbreak. This community-based participatory research study leveraged diverse qualitative methods, principally photovoice, to explore how the social and built environment shapes health among TAY experiencing homelessness in San Diego, how these environments may have contributed to the HAV outbreak, and TAY’s perceptions of HAV-related public health interventions. Emergent findings include stigmatization of TAY and other people experiencing homelessness, interventions that failed to address root causes of the outbreak, and interactions with housing-related and other social support resources that limit rather than support economic and social mobility. Findings have implications for understanding how media and public discourse, public health interventions, and availability and delivery of resources can contribute to and perpetuate stigma and health inequities faced by TAY experiencing homelessness.

Introduction Adolescent vaping remains a problem in the US, yet little is known about what health warning themes most discourage vaping among adolescents. We sought to identify the most compelling themes for vaping warnings for US adolescents. Methods Participants were a national probability sample of 623 US adolescents aged 13-17, recruited in summer 2020. Adolescents were randomized to one of five warning message themes about the potential health effects of vaping: 1) chemical harms, 2) lung harms, 3) COVID-19 harms, 4) nicotine addiction, or 5) control (messages about vape litter). The primary outcome was perceived message effectiveness (PME; 3-item scale). Secondary outcomes were negative affect (fear), attention, anticipated social interactions, and message novelty. Results Adolescents rated the chemical, lung, and COVID-19 harms warning messages higher on PME than nicotine addiction and control (all p<.05), while nicotine addiction was rated higher than control (p<.05). The chemical, lung, and COVID-19 harms warning themes also elicited greater negative affect than nicotine addiction and control (all p<.05). For all other secondary outcomes, the COVID-19 harms warning message theme was rated higher than nicotine addiction and control (all p<.05). Conclusion Adolescents perceived warning message themes about lung, chemical, and COVID-19 health effects of vaping as more effective than nicotine addiction. To discourage vaping, the FDA and others should communicate to youth about the health effects of vaping beyond nicotine addiction. Implications Adolescents perceived warning message themes about the lung, chemical, and COVID-19 health effects of vaping as more effective than nicotine addiction, while nicotine addiction was perceived as more effective than control themes about vaping litter. To discourage vaping among adolescents, health messaging should expand message themes to communicate about a broader set of health effects of vaping beyond nicotine addiction.

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Background Transgender adolescents use vape products (e.g., e-cigarettes) at higher rates than cisgender adolescents. Little is known about how these disparities differ from the intersectional perspective of both gender identity and race/ethnicity. Methods We examined disparities in past 30-day vaping frequency at the intersection of gender identity and race/ethnicity among adolescents participating in two pooled waves of the population-based California Healthy Kids Survey (N=953,445; 2017-19). Generalized linear mixed models included gender identity-by-race/ethnicity interactions and adjusted for potential confounders. Stratified models quantified relationships between gender identity and vaping within race/ethnicity strata and between race/ethnicity and vaping within gender identity strata. Results Transgender adolescents of color were more likely to report a higher frequency of vaping than cisgender white adolescents. In models stratified by race/ethnicity, transgender adolescents evidenced greater odds of more frequent vaping than cisgender adolescents of the same race/ethnicity; disparities were greatest between transgender and cisgender Black adolescents (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 6.05, 95% CI: 4.76–7.68) and smallest between transgender and cisgender white adolescents (AOR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.06–1.35). In models stratified by gender identity, disparities were greatest between transgender Black and transgender white adolescents (AOR: 2.85, 95% CI: 2.20–3.70) and smallest between transgender multiracial and white adolescents (AOR: 1.28, 95% CI: 1.05–1.58). Similar, though less consistent, patterns emerged for adolescents of color unsure of their gender identity relative to cisgender white adolescents. Conclusion Transgender adolescents of color may be especially vulnerable to vaping disparities. Future research should identify and intervene on causal mechanisms undergirding disparities. Implications Research finds that transgender adolescents use vape products at higher rates than their cisgender peers, however, little is known about how patterns of adolescent vaping may differ by both gender identity and race/ethnicity–information needed to inform culturally-tailored prevention and control initiatives to decrease adolescent vaping disparities. Our analysis of data from a population-based adolescent health survey finds evidence of magnified disparities in vaping frequency among transgender adolescents of color.