LGBTQ+ Peer Advocates’ Health Communication Praxis for College Student Health Outreach and Intersectional Needs

ABSTRACT

The following essay examines health communication outreach for LGBTQ+ college students through analyzing both the design and exit evaluation of a federally funded United States public health program. SHARE-Pride was a three-year health intervention program that served LGBTQ+ students ages 18–24 at Southern University (SU)—a Hispanic and Minority Serving Institution. Because of structural barriers creating sexual health and drug and alcohol consumption risks, SHARE-Pride (SP) used a peer advocate model for students to develop mentoring relationships with LGBTQ+ peers to increase health knowledge. We first present health literature that informed SP’s design and then examine research that shaped our exit study to understand advocates’ intersectional identities and experiences as impacting their health communication outreach. We share rich findings from our interviews with 12 students, including communication approaches for LGBTQ+ health, increasing health communication inclusive of the full LGBTQ+ spectrum, and the role of intersectionality in LGBTQ+ health communication. We conclude with health communication praxis for future LGBTQ+ health programs and research.

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Teresa L. Thompson, Dr. Shaunak Sastry, the editorial team, and our anonymous reviewers at Health Communication for their feedback. Thanks to the SHARE-Pride participants for sharing their experiences and creating change for LGBTQ+ health communication on their campus, in this research, and for broader, more just health futures. The SHARE-Pride program and this research was supported through funding from Dr. Melinda Villagran (PI) and Marsha Burney (Co-PI)’s U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s grant (SP021372). Dr. Eger presented an early version of this paper at the National Communication Association’s Health Communication Division in Baltimore, MD, and appreciates the NCA reviewers and audience for their generative comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We use LGBTQ+ to include all sexualities and gender identities outside of heterosexuality and cisgender identities including: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Two-Spirit, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Aromantic, Agender, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Nonbinary, Gender Nonconforming, Demisexual, and many other queer sexualities and gender nonconforming identities (signified by the plus symbol) including those who do not identify with specific identifying word(s) or naming. Because none of our participants were intersex, asexual, or Two-Spirit, we use LGBTQ+ rather than LGBTQiA or 2SLGBTQIAP+.

2. All SHARE-Pride research (including additional quantitative, qualitative, and textual analysis data collection) was approved through Melinda’s IRB board approval as the PI (IRB #6015) for the large-scale research on SP for its three-year duration. In addition to peer advocates consenting to participate in SP’s overall research, for these specific exit interviews, Elizabeth sought separate verbal consent from each participant before beginning each interview, and all participants also consented to be audio recorded. Participants were also invited to skip any unwanted question(s), pause the recording for clarification, and end the interview at any time.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SP021372].