Racial Disparities in Health and Health Behaviors Among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Heterosexual Men and Women

• In Event: 581 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 11. Sexual Orientation and Mental and Physical Health

Abstract

As detailed by the Institute of Medicine (2011), existing research on sexual minority health is limited, and in particular lacks an examination of how sexual orientation intersects with other identities, including racial/ethnic identity, to shape health outcomes among U.S. adults. In addition, existing scholarship has tended to rely on convenience samples and often fails to evaluate how health status varies across disparate sexual minority groups or relative to heterosexuals. This paper responds to these shortcomings by utilizing aggregated data from fourteen states from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) collected for various years between 2000 and 2010 (n = 557,012). Specifically, we evaluate how demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status, in addition to two measures of health behavior (smoking and obesity) and self-rated health differs across the intersections of sexual orientation (heterosexual, gay/lesbian, bisexual), gender (male, female), and racial/ethnic identity (white, black, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaskan Native). Overall, we found strong support for poorer health among women and bisexuals; showing that women and bisexuals have higher odds of being in poor/fair health and higher odds of risky health behaviors.

Authors

• Zelma Lizeth Oyarvide, Rice University

• Justin T. Denney, Washington State University

• Bridget K. Gorman, Rice University