Jean -

Measuring sexual orientation is hard and sampling sexual minorities is even
harder, so my impression is that the data are not particularly strong.  I
have never seen a statistic on sexual minorities' life expectancy, and I
would be dubious if I did because of the sampling and measurement problems.

However, there are several clear health disparities.  Both tobacco usage and
violence (as in victimization/survivorship) are well documented among sexual
minority youth in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) in
states that include questions on sexual identity/behavior/desire (MA, VT).
Legal rights to health care access for partners are another major area.
Access to safe sex information is lacking in states (like mine) that teach
only abstinence-based sex education.

One major document on disparities is the Healthy People 2010 Companion
Document: http://www.lgbthealth.net/side_hp2010.shtml

Organizations who could talk about this (and other disparities) include:

National Coalition for LGBT Health, http://www.lgbthealth.net
Gay & Lesbian Medical Association, http://www.glma.org/
National LGBT Tobacco Control Network, http://www.lgbttobacco.org
The Williams Institute, http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/home.html

I would caution that while sexual minority status is associated with these
and other health disparities, it may also have a protective effect on some
health outcomes.  And, more importantly, there is a long historical
struggle, first, to take sexual orientation away from the purview of
medicine and, second, to focus on health disparities that are caused by
discrimination.

Cheers, Joseph.

Joseph Lee, Master's Student
Maternal and Child Health
School of Public Health
University of NC at Chapel Hill

"'Privilege' -- yes, I like that word much better than 'normal.'"
   - Gide A. Howard R, transl. Corydon. NY: FSG; 1983. p. 21.


SAMPLE ARTICLES:

Garofalo R, Wolf RC, Kessel S, Palfrey SJ, DuRant RH. The association
between health risk behaviors and sexual orientation among a school-based
sample of adolescents. Pediatrics. 1998 May;101(5):895-902.

DuRant RH, Krowchuk DP, Sinal SH. Victimization, use of violence, and drug
use at school among male adolescents who engage in same-sex sexual behavior.
J Pediatr. 1998 Jul;133(1):113-8.

Ryan H, Wortley PM, Easton A, Pederson L, Greenwood G. Smoking among
lesbians, gays, and bisexuals: a review of the literature. Am J Prev Med.
2001 Aug;21(2):142-9.


> From: Jean Cheng <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:15:33 -0700
> To: <[log in to unmask]>, <[log in to unmask]>
> Conversation: another request - stats re how sexual orientation affects life
> expectancy
> Subject: [spiritof1848] another request - stats re how sexual orientation
> affects life expectancy
> 
> Sorry, I neglected to include this in my earlier query - we're also
> looking for any facts/data/statistics concerning the impact of sexual
> orientation on health, especially life expectancy (but other indicators
> would be welcome too).
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!
> 
>  
> 
> *********************
> 
> Jean Cheng
> 
> California Newsreel
> 
> 500 Third Street Suite 505
> 
> San Francisco CA 94107
> 
> 415-284-7800 x306
> 
> www.newsreel.org
> 
> **********************
> 
> PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM OUT OF THE OFFICE ON MONDAYS AND FRIDAYS
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 

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