DIFFICULT CHALLENGE FOR HEALTHY PEOPLE 2010: PUTTING POLICY INTO PRACTICE. A COMMENTARY

ABSTRACT

Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H., Director, Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, public health professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and former Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, outlines the difficulties in achieving the stated goals of Healthy People 2010 for one population identified within the document as having health disparities – i.e., lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals in the United States. [Gender identity and transgender health issues were not addressed in Healthy People 2010.] The dearth of data on LGBT health disparities is discussed, as are many of the social, economic, systemic, and attitudinal barriers that prevent many LGBT persons from achieving equal access to comprehensive, culturally competent, community-based health care services. Health care providers, health purchasers, policymakers, researchers, academicians and consumers are urged to learn more about LGBT health care issues; to revamp the public health system's approach to health care delivery, research, and education; to include sexual orientation and gender identity measures in research proposals; to address sexual orientation and gender identity in health professions curricula; to include sexual orientation as part of cultural competency in the development of cultural competence standards; and to involve LGBT persons in all phases of health services planning, delivery, and evaluation.