The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services last week took a large step forward in the effort to alleviate LGBT health disparities.
HHS unveiled its plan June 29 to incorporate questions on sexual orientation and gender identity into its National Health Interview Survey, marking the first time a federal agency will collect LGBT health data.
“This is a historic day for the field of LGBT health,” said Hutson Inniss, executive director of the National Coalition for LGBT Health, in a statement last week. “We know that LGBT individuals experience unique health disparities and tracking this data on the national level will be a remarkable step forward to documenting and identifying ways to reduce the disparities that LGBT people face.”
HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the agency will include questions on sexual orientation in the NHIS by 2013 and, in the meantime, will test such questions to ensure effectiveness.
“The first step is to make sure we are asking the right questions,” Sebelius said. “Sound data collection takes careful planning to ensure that accurate and actionable data is being recorded.”
Sebelius said the agency will also begin the process to collect information on gender identity, although that is not expected to be finalized by 2013.
The department will convene roundtables with national health and LGBT experts to guide the data-collection process on gender identity.
“Data collection, or the lack of data collection, is probably one of the most important things hampering the health of LGBT people and also the advancement of LGBT civil rights,” said Dr. Randall Sell, director of Drexel University’s Program for LGBT Health. “Data is power, and the government knows this. Politicians know this. Policymakers know this. And so far we have been excluded from data collection and kept out of power.”
Sell said he has asked federal health officials to begin LGBT data collection at least once a year since 1988 and has been told in the past that such an effort was being made.
He said he is hesitant to accept the announcement but, even so, he added the two-year projection for implementation is unnecessary.
“I am skeptical that it’ll happen,” he said. “There does seem to be a bigger commitment this time than before. But the community can’t let this announcement just pass before us; we need to keep on them until the data is actually collected.”
Sell noted that the NHIS is the primary federal health survey and one that innumerable other surveys are modeled after — and often from which they cut and paste questions, underscoring the widespread impact that such a change could have.
When the survey does become LGBT-inclusive, Sell said, the implications for the community will be vast.
“Any time we can get questions on sexual orientation, we find information that then has to be acted upon, which results in programs, policies and the need for funding,” he said. “Data is a hard thing for people to understand and it’s hard to understand the importance of it. But if you work in politics or policy, you know that data is what drives so much. This is much bigger than same-sex marriage — this is huge.”