The VA Veteran Wellbeing Center Speakers Series presents........The State of Health and Health Care for LGBTQ+ Veterans
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) members of the U.S. military have faced an enduring history of discrimination and exclusion from the benefits of their service while on active duty and as veterans. In this webinar, Dr. Schuler reports on large, representative datasets (2015–2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data) to describe prevalence estimates of health-related outcomes across multiple domains (healthcare access and affordability, general health, substance use, and chronic conditions) for sexual and gender minority veterans relative to their heterosexual and cisgender veteran peers. She also examines associations between state LGBTQ+ policy climates and health-related outcomes among LGBTQ+ veterans. These findings provide further evidence of the significant disparities in access to health care and health-related outcomes across multiple domains for LGBTQ+ veterans compared with their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts, underscoring the importance of efforts to improve health services and outcomes for LGBTQ+ veterans.