Health Care Disparities Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: A Literature Review

Abstract

About 3.5% Americans identify themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual while 0.3% identify themselves as transgender. The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community belongs to almost every race, ethnicity, religion, age, and socioeconomic group. The LGBT youth are at a higher risk for substance use, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), cancers, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, bullying, isolation, rejection, anxiety, depression, and suicide as compared to the general population. LGBT youth receive poor quality of care due to stigma, lack of healthcare providers’ awareness, and insensitivity to the unique needs of this community. The main objective of this literature review is to highlight the challenges faced by the LGBT youth and to enhance the awareness among physicians about the existing disparities in order to provide a more comprehensive, evidence-based, and humane medical care to this community.

“Automatic assumption of your gender, sexuality and sexual practices is also discrimination”: Exploring sexual healthcare experiences and recommendations among sexually and gender diverse persons in Arctic Canada

“…It is well established that stigma and discrimination contribute to LGBTQ+ persons’ poorer mental health outcomes (Bostwick, Boyd, Hughes, West, & McCabe, ), such as elevated depression and suicide risks (Marsack & Stephenson, ; Sutter & Perrin, ), and sexual health disparities, including higher HIV (Government of Canada, ) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates (Logie, Navia, & Loutfy, ; Puckett, Newcomb, Garofalo, & Mustanski, ). These health disparities have also been reported among LGBTQ+ youth (Hafeez, Zeshan, Tahir, Jahan, & Naveed, ). Meta‐analytic findings suggest that the stress associated with LGBTQ+ stigma in rural places may contribute to depression and suicidal ideation (Marsack & Stephenson, ).…”

“…Barriers to accessing healthcare contribute to health disparities in the Arctic Canada generally (Corosky & Blystad, ; Lys & Reading, ) and among LGBTQ+ persons at large (Elliott et al, ; Hafeez et al, ; Jackson et al, ; Marti‐Pastor et al, ). Studies that centre the perspectives, experiences, and priorities of LGBTQ+ persons regarding their healthcare are largely absent in Canada's Arctic.…”

Barriers in Access to Health Care Services among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT)

“…Bisexual. In another similar study about 3.5% Americans identify themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual while 0.3% identify themselves as transgender [ 1]. Regarding the status of coming out, the study findings show that more than half (64.4%) among the total participants reported to have come out about their sexual orientation and gender identity in the society and friends.…”

Improving the Health Care of Transsexual Individuals

“…Bu bireylerde sigara, alkol, madde kullanımı gibi riskli sağlık davranışları da bu hastalıkların görülme sıklığını arttırmaktadır. Transseksüel bireyler; cinsel şiddet, intihar, depresyon gibi mental sağlık sorunları açısından risk altındadır (27,31) .…”