Category: press

Gradient pastel rainbow background. Boxes of various sizes containing text answering answering “What did we do?”, “New & Notable”, and “What did we learn?”, and “What is remote biological sample collection?”. Illustrations of donating blood and a couple. Title with citation: Experiences with Remote Biological Sample Collection Among LGBTQIA+ Participants Panyanouvong et al., Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health [2024]

Willingness of Black and Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQIA+ communities to donate biological samples

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following is a press release from The Pride Study dated April 16, 2024:

Official Title

Our needs have been ignored for a long time: Factors affecting willingness of Black and Hispanic/Latinx sexual and gender minority communities to donate biospecimens

Community Title

Willingness of Black and Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQIA+ communities to donate biological samples

What Did We Do?

We interviewed 22 LGBTQIA+ participants from The PRIDE Study who identified as Black and/or Hispanic/Latinx to understand what would influence their decision to donate biological samples (i.e., biospecimens, such as blood, hair, saliva, and urine) for substance use research. We did this because Black and Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQIA+ people are underrepresented in substance use research.

What Was New, Innovative, or Notable?

This was one of the first studies to explore what affects willingness to donate biological samples among Black and Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQIA+ communities. This is important because these communities have often been excluded from or mistreated in substance use research.

What Did We Learn?

We identified 8 themes around what influences Black and Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQIA+ participants’ willingness to donate biological samples for substance use research: 1) community benefits; 2) personal benefits; 3) feeling that the community is being taken advantage of; 4) personal risks; 5) convenience; 6) trustworthiness of the research team; 7) perceived value in donating; and 8) biological sample collection being seen as more normal because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants were highly motivated to donate their biological samples to increase knowledge about the needs and improve the health of their communities. Most participants expressed concern about data security, privacy, and misuse. Many participants referenced past unfair and poor treatment that people from their communities have faced in health care and research.

What Does This Mean for Our Communities?

Black and Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQIA+ people are motivated to donate their biological samples if researchers use ethical practices and explain the purpose of the study. Examples include protecting participant data and clearly communicating the steps involved in biological sample donation. Researchers can use the findings from this study to increase representation from Black and Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQIA+ people and to reduce substance use among these communities.

What’s Next?

Researchers can apply the suggestions shared in the paper. For instance, researchers can build trust with Black and Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQIA+ communities and provide education about biological sample donation during the consent process. Future research should explore if following these participant recommendations leads to actual changes in biological sample donation.

Action Steps

See http://www.pridestudy.org/study for more information and to share this study with your friends and family.

If you are interested in conducting research related to LGBTQIA+ health, please learn more about collaborating with The PRIDE Study at http://pridestudy.org/collaborate.

Citation

Ceja, A., Bruno, V., Panyanouvong, N. L., Aguilar, J., Raygani, S., Lubensky, M. E., Dastur, Z., Lunn, M. R., Obedin-Maliver, J., & Flentje, A. Our needs have been ignored for a long time: Factors affecting willingness of Black and Hispanic/Latinx sexual and gender minority communities to donate biospecimens. Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health. 2024 March 22. doi: https://doi.org/10.1891/LGBTQ-2023-0022.

View the full paper at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/32d9g3wc.

LGBTQIA+ People’s Experiences with Chronic Pain

LGBTQIA+ People’s Experiences with Chronic Pain

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following is a press release issued by The Pride Study on April 11, 2024:

Official Title

Localized and Widespread Chronic Pain in Sexual and Gender Minority People – An Analysis of The PRIDE Study

Community Title

LGBTQIA+ People’s Experiences with Chronic Pain

What Did We Do?

Chronic pain is defined as pain that a person experiences for three months or longer. Other studies have reported that up to 20% of American adults experience chronic pain, but this research has mainly been done with cisgender and heterosexual populations. The goal of our study was to identify and describe the experiences of chronic pain among LGBTQIA+ persons using data from 5,397 participants who completed The PRIDE Study’s 2022 Annual Questionnaire.

What Was New, Innovative, or Notable? 

This is one of the first studies to explore if chronic pain is widespread among LGBTQIA+ persons and in which part(s) of the body they experience chronic pain.

What Did We Learn? 

The findings from this study highlight that chronic pain in certain areas of the body and having chronic widespread pain are commonly seen in LGBTQIA+ participants in The PRIDE Study. The most common locations of chronic pain in LGBTQIA+ participants are the neck, upper back, and lower back. Approximately one-third of participants who identified as non-binary, another gender identity, a transgender man, queer, asexual/demisexual/gray ace, and another sexual orientation reported having chronic widespread pain.

What Does This Mean for Our Communities?

The findings of this study show that there are increased numbers of LGBTQIA+ persons reporting chronic pain (approximately 55%) compared to other studies with cisgender and heterosexual persons (approximately 20%). Our findings also highlight that chronic widespread pain is present in increased numbers of LGBTQIA+ persons (approximately 15-37%) compared to other studies with cisgender and heterosexual persons (approximately 10%). Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability and decreased quality of life. It is important for healthcare providers to understand there is an increased presence of chronic pain in LGBTQIA+ persons so that they can provide better support and healthcare.

What’s Next? 

Future studies are planned to understand what factors lead to increased chronic pain and chronic widespread pain in LGBTQIA+ persons.

Action Steps

See http://www.pridestudy.org/study for more information and to share this study with your friends and family.

If you are interested in conducting research related to LGBTQIA+ health, please learn more about collaborating with The PRIDE Study at http://pridestudy.org/collaborate.

Citation

Chadwick AL, Lisha NE, Lubensky ME, Dastur Z, Lunn MR, Obedin-Maliver J, Flentje A. Localized and widespread chronic pain in sexual and gender minority people—an analysis of the PRIDE study. Pain Medicine. 2024 March 26; pnae023. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnae023. Epub ahead of print.

View the full paper at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4p94g4wt.

Photo used courtesy of Gender Spectrum

Experiences of Conversion Practice by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following is a press release issued by The Pride Study on Wednesday, March 13, 2024:

Official Title

Inequities in Conversion Practice Exposure at the Intersection of Ethnoracial and Gender Identities

Community Title

Experiences of Conversion Practice by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

What Did We Do?

Conversion practices refer to organized attempts to change the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of people who are LGBTQIA+. Some examples include religious rituals and therapy intended to cause a person to associate negative thoughts with being LGBTQIA+. We looked at experiences of conversion practice in The PRIDE Study’s Lifetime Health and Experiences Questionnaire from 2019-2021 among LGTBQIA+ people. We asked participants if they had any conversion practice experiences in their lifetime, the age when they first experienced conversion practice, and the age when they last experienced conversion practice. We then looked at how experiences of conversion practice differed by race, ethnicity, and gender.

What Was New, Innovative, or Notable? 

This is one of the first studies that looked at how experiences of conversion practice differ by race, ethnicity, and gender. We considered how different identities experience power and oppression and how this may have shaped the experiences of conversion practice for different LGBTQIA+ groups.

What Did We Learn? 

There were 9,274 LGBTQIA+ participants in the study. Of them, 5.7% of LGBTQIA+ participants reported any experiences with conversion practice in their life. On average, participants were 18 years old when they first experienced conversion practice and 21 years old when they last experienced it. This resulted in an average of 3 years between their first and last experience with conversion practice. A higher percentage of transgender and nonbinary participants reported conversion practice experiences, especially participants who are American Indian or Alaska Native and/or Middle Eastern or North African.

What Does This Mean for Our Communities? 

Systems of power and oppression may likely shape differences in conversion practice experiences across LGTBQIA+ groups. This may be important for creating federal and local policies that ban conversion practice to protect LGBTQIA+ groups and reduce the harmful effects of such practices, especially for communities who may be affected the most.

What’s Next? 

We plan to look at how different experiences of conversion practice affect mental health. This involves understanding how practices targeting sexual orientation, gender identity, or both can impact mental health differently for LGBTQIA+ individuals.

Citation

Tran NK, Lett E, Flentje A, Ingram S, Lubensky ME, Dastur Z, Obedin-Maliver J, Lunn MR. Inequities in Conversion Practice Exposure at the Intersection of Ethnoracial and Gender Identities. Am J Public Health. 2024, March 13; 114 (4): 424-434. doi: https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307580

2022 US Trans Survey Early Insights

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following is from an email sent out by the National Center for Transgender Equity on Feb. 7, 2024:

We know you’ve been waiting, and now the day is finally here! The National Center for Transgender Equality is proud to announce the release of the first report from the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey – the Early Insights report!

A record number of transgender people took the 2022 survey – 92,329 to be exact. That’s over three times the number of respondents of the last survey in 2015. We appreciate every one of you who took or shared the survey, and now we’re finally able to share the first of many reports to be released.

The lessons from the report are clear: trans people in the survey said that living as their authentic selves made them more satisfied with their lives and that they have sources of support, yet still face many challenges in areas like accessing health care and accurate IDs.

Here are a just a few highlights from the Early Insights report:

Trans people in the survey reported greater life satisfaction after transitioning. Nearly all respondents (94%) who lived at least some of the time in a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth (“gender transition”) reported that they were either “a lot more satisfied” (79%) or “a little more satisfied” (15%) with their life.

Discriminatory policies cause real harm. Nearly half (47%) of respondents had thought about moving to another state because their state government considered or passed laws that target transgender people for unequal treatment (such as banning access to bathrooms, health care, or sports), and 5% of respondents had actually moved out of state because of such state action.

Without question, misinformation and a lack of understanding is underpinning the escalating legislative attacks on our community. But with the 2022 USTS, the largest survey ever conducted on the experiences of transgender and nonbinary people in the country, we are once again combatting that misinformation with hard data about trans lives.

Check out the Early Insights report at ustranssurvey.org. We made major changes to the site to make it easier to share the data with PDF and web versions of the report, including interactive charts. You can also view the full website en español.

Special thanks to our partners, the National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, the TransLatin@ Coalition, and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance, for making this survey possible. And to you, for being part of the NCTE community – we couldn’t have done this without you.

With gratitude,
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen
(he/him)
Executive Director

A genderqueer person looking at their phone - Active Social Media Use and Health in the LGBTQIA+ Community

Active Social Media Use and Health in the LGBTQIA+ Community

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following is a press release issued by The Pride Study on Thursday, January 4, 2023:

Official Title

Active social media use and health indicators among sexual and gender minority adults

Community Title

Active Social Media Use and Health in the LGBTQIA+ Community

What Did We Do?

We looked at data from The PRIDE Study 2017 Annual Questionnaire around active social media use and health. To measure active social media use, we considered how participants rated their own use of social networking sites as active or passive and their frequency of commenting on friends’ posts or interacting with others. We examined whether people with more active social media use had better or worse health.

What Was New, Innovative, or Notable?

This was one of the first studies to measure how much LGBTQIA+ people use social media actively, not just how much time they spend on social media. Using social media actively might have different effects than just browsing.

What Did We Learn?

Individuals with more active social media use were more likely to feel depressed, smoke cigarettes, not sleep enough, and not get enough physical activity, compared to individuals with less active social media use.

What Does This Mean for Our Communities? 

More active social media usage may play a role in experiencing poor health. While social media usage may also positively affect our health in other ways, being mindful of our social media use may be good for our health.

What’s Next? 

We don’t know whether more active use of social media worsens health, or whether people with poorer health use social media more actively. We want to survey LGBTQIA+ individuals over a longer period of time to examine this relationship more closely.

Action Steps

See http://www.pridestudy.org/study for more information and to share this study with your friends and family.

If you are interested in conducting research related to LGBTQIA+ health, please learn more about collaborating with The PRIDE Study at http://pridestudy.org/collaborate.

Citation

Vogel EA, Flentje A, Lunn MR, Obedin-Maliver J, Capriotti MR, Ramo DE, Prochaska JJ. Active social media use and health indicators among sexual and gender minority adults. LGBT Health.  Vol 0 Ahead of Print. December 28, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2023.0170

View the full PDF at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30w4w10n

Photo used courtesy of Gender Spectrum

Society’s attitudes and negative healthcare experiences among transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people

Society’s attitudes and negative healthcare experiences among transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following is research from The Pride Study published August 24, 2023.

What Did We Do?

We looked at reports that rated a state or area on their environment for LGBTQIA+ people, which we used to represent their local society’s attitudes. We then looked to see if those attitudes were related to any negative healthcare experiences of transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people that were reported in The PRIDE Study 2019 Annual Questionnaire.

What Was New, Innovative, or Notable? 

This study was among the first to test how existing research measures may reflect society’s attitudes about transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people and how they are related to experiences in healthcare.

What Did We Learn? 

We did not find a relationship between these existing research measures of society’s attitudes about transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive people and negative healthcare experiences. However, we found that 18% of transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people reported a negative experience in healthcare during the past year and 12.5% had a negative experience in mental healthcare. This is important because mental healthcare experiences are not usually looked at separately from the rest of healthcare experiences.

What Does This Mean for Our Communities? 

Transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people had negative experiences in both mental healthcare settings and in general healthcare settings. However, society’s attitudes, as measured in our study, were not related to these experiences.

What’s Next? 

Society’s attitudes about transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive people are not well measured in research. Understanding how the community experiences those attitudes is important. Until this improves, other factors that may affect experiences in healthcare should be looked at to improve the experiences of transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people.

Action Steps

See http://www.pridestudy.org/study for more information and to share this study with your friends and family.

If you are interested in conducting research related to LGBTQIA+ health, please learn more about collaborating with The PRIDE Study at http://pridestudy.org/collaborate.

Citation

Clark KD, Lunn MR, Bosse JD, Sevelius JM, Dawson-Rose C, Weiss SJ, Lubensky ME, Obedin-Maliver J, & Flentje A. Societal stigma and mistreatment in healthcare among gender minority people: a cross-sectional study. Int J Equity Health. 2023 Aug, 24; 22(1):162. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-01975-7

Silc Touch Ergonomic Handle

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following is a press release for the Silc Touch ergonomic handle:

The Silc Touch ergonomic handle is a revolution for all. Designed with accessibility in mind, the Silc Touch is the first full size toy handle on the market. It is truly a game-changer; offering better grip, better control, better angles – better pleasure. It’s simply a better way to hold a toy. Whether you’re looking for easier reach, less hand strain, more realistic thrusting, more pressure, or even a better view, the Silc Touch’s innovative design and classic craftsmanship will open new doors for you.

Continue reading “Silc Touch Ergonomic Handle” →

Access to Healthcare Issues for LGBTQIA+ People with Disabilities

Access to Healthcare Issues for LGBTQIA+ People with Disabilities

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following is research from The Pride Study published July 21, 2023.

What Did We Do?

There is limited knowledge about the barriers that LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities experience while accessing healthcare. Among participants in The PRIDE Study who reported that they live with a disability, we looked at responses from The PRIDE Study’s 2019 Annual Questionnaire regarding access to healthcare (such as having a primary care provider, having health insurance, etc.), delaying healthcare, and insurance coverage.

What Was New, Innovative, or Notable?

This is one of the first studies about the barriers to healthcare experienced by the LGBTQIA+ disability community.

What Did We Learn? 

In our study, we found that about 31% of LGBTQIA+ people lived with a disability. This was higher than national estimates of about 25%. LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities were more likely to have a primary care provider compared to their non-disabled peers. However, LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities experienced more barriers to healthcare. Specifically, LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities were more likely to delay seeking care, to not have health insurance, and to be unable to obtain care. When we looked at these barriers by different disability groups (physical, mental, intellectual, etc.), they were relatively similar. This tells us that many LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities may experience some sort of healthcare barrier.

We found that LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities delayed seeking care because of mistreatment or disrespect they experienced from providers. They were also denied care or given lower quality medical or mental healthcare compared to those without disabilities.

What Does This Mean for Our Communities? 

The findings of this study suggest that barriers to healthcare are happening more often for LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities compared to their non-disabled peers. This means that increasing culturally sensitive training for healthcare providers is necessary to improve the quality of care for LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities. The results showed that addressing appointment availability, the cost of care, insurance coverage, and transportation issues are important items for those who make healthcare policy to focus on. This may improve care for LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities.

What’s Next?

The results of this study can help identify improve public health and healthcare systems by improving access and the quality of care for people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Future work should explore the different experiences of separate groups of people in the LGBTQIA+ disability community. It would also be important to analyze the relationship between health insurance and experiencing barriers to care.

Action Steps

See http://www.pridestudy.org/study for more information and to share this study with your friends and family.

If you are interested in conducting research related to LGBTQIA+ health, please learn more about collaborating with The PRIDE Study at http://pridestudy.org/collaborate.

Citation

Lamba S, Obedin-Maliver J, Mayo J, Flentje A, Lubensky ME, Dastur Z, Lunn MR. Self-Reported Barriers to Care among Sexual and Gender Minority People with Disabilities: Findings from The PRIDE Study. AJPH. 2023 July, 20: e1-e10. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/epdf/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307333

 

PS: Want to contribute to research specifically for the disability community around sex? I’m collecting data! This survey is open through the end of July 2023.

"no body criminalized" against flowers with the logos of both the transgender law center and the repro legal defense fund

Announcing the Trans Health Legal Fund

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

The following press release was issued on Monday, March 7, 2023:

In the face of widespread attacks on transgender people’s bodily autonomy, Transgender Law Center and If/When/How’s Repro Legal Defense Fund are coming together to launch the Trans Health Legal Fund.

This fund provides economic resources and support for people facing investigation, arrest, or prosecution for seeking gender-affirming healthcare. This fund is a vital tool to protect our communities from pervasive attacks on their access to healthcare from extremist policymakers, police, and prosecutors.

“Trans and nonbinary people deserve the right to access the medical care and resources that align with their needs,” said Shelby Chestnut, Executive Director of Transgender Law Center. “The increasing threats of legislators attempting to ban and criminalize gender affirming care and abortion have highlighted even more the need for a collective response. We’re proud to partner with If/When/How’s Repro Legal Defense Fund to create a pathway to liberation and bodily autonomy for all people.”

“Our fights for reproductive justice and trans liberation are deeply intertwined. As our movements face continuous waves of attacks on our bodily autonomy, it’s essential that we show up together to support the needs of our communities,” said Rafa Kidvai, Director of If/When/How’s Repro Legal Defense Fund. “Criminalization creates a harmful, life-long domino effect on someone’s life, whether they face jail, arrest, or surveillance. Together with the Transgender Law Center, we will work to minimize the harms of the criminal legal system and fight to ensure our communities can live safely and authentically.”

The Trans Health Legal Fund will curtail the deep and lasting harm of facing criminalization by providing financial support that’s for the whole human – from bail to commissary to therapy. Transgender people who are facing criminalization for seeking healthcare can apply to the fund at www.transgenderlawcenter.org.

Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest national trans-led organization advocating for a world in which all people are free to define themselves and their futures. Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, TLC employs a variety of community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation.

The Repro Legal Defense Fund (RLDF) is a program of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice that works to prevent, defend against, and put a permanent stop to the criminalization of people’s bodies. The RLDF provides bail and strong defenses for anyone criminalized for something that happens during pregnancy, and the folks who directly support them.

Chronic Sex Gets Press!

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

B&W photo of a person typing on a laptop; the laptop has teal words "Chronic Sex Gets Press!" and white words "Chronic Sex"

In case you’ve missed some of the amazing things happening in the last few weeks, Chronic Sex is taking off!

I was recently featured in Broadly’s piece “Having a Chronic Illness Doesn’t Mean Giving Up Sex” by Nicole Haase.

I was also just quoted in Teen Vogue, too, in Ariel Henley’s piece “Why Sex Education for Disabled People Is So Important.”

Other press you may have missed:

You can find others over at my writing site.

Life is feeling just a little bit surreal lately.