- WELL • BEINGS • NEWS
- Posts
- The LGBTQ+ Health Data Gap is Widening
The LGBTQ+ Health Data Gap is Widening
Systemic erasure in health records is fueling a crisis for queer and trans communities—experts say it’s time to count who and what matters.
BJ Ferguson
May 14, 2025
Across the United States and much of the world, LGBTQ+ individuals remain, and in fact are now increasingly invisible in many scientific studies, healthcare databases, and public health data collection systems. This absence, referred to as a “data gap” by researchers and health experts, has profound consequences on marginalized communities. It inhibits evidence-based policymaking, conceals health disparities, and perpetuates the systemic neglect and harm of queer and trans populations. Despite growing awareness of the unique healthcare challenges faced by LGBTQ+ communities, the infrastructure for collecting and analyzing data about these populations remains woefully, and as we are now seeing, often intentionally inadequate.
Subscribe to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber today to get access to our original reporting, along with all our other premium subscriber-only content.
Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.
Stories you can expect in the coming months:
- • 5 LGBTQ+ Health Studies Every Health Provider Should Bookmark
- • 3 Questions to Stop Asking Trans Patients, and What to Ask Instead
- • The Growing Data Gap in Queer Health Research
- • Things Queer People Wish Their Health Providers Knew
- • HRT and the International Supply Chain
- • Virtual Health and Trans Care Bans: what you need to know
- • Detransition: myths, realities, and best practices
- • Beyond WPATH: developing client-centered care protocols
Reply