The Lavender Haze: Enabling a Healthy Queer Future
PHPod sits down with Kim Nelson, associate professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health, and Joanne Patterson, a behavioral scientist at Ohio State University, to discuss the current health landscape that queer youth and young adults are facing in the United States.
Read Time: 2 minutes
Published:
Same-sex marriage was legalized in the U.S. in 2015 through the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Most American queer youth and young adults have grown up in a world where they have more rights and opportunities than those who came before them. But sexuality and gender are still strong determinants of health, and many sexual and gender minorities still suffer from systemic bias that affects their health. With all the progress that’s been made, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) young people still struggle to overcome barriers to health, leading to worse outcomes. These youth should be set up for healthy lives, and early intervention may be the key.
In this episode of PHPod, new host Abby Varker speaks with experts about the current health landscape that queer youth and young adults are facing in the U.S., touching on gender-affirming care, minor consent laws, substance use, and harm reduction techniques. They also discuss the possible strategies to enable LGBTQ+ people to live healthier lives in the future.
Kim Nelson is an associate professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health. Her backgrounds in public health and psychology shape her research to understand the structural and psychological determinants of health, particularly regarding sexual health inequities among marginalized adolescents. Nelson discusses the need to protect queer youth’s autonomy in the U.S. in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, as well as the rise of youth advocacy in defending their rights to health care.
Joanne G. Patterson is a behavioral scientist at Ohio State University whose research aims to reduce cancer inequities, with a special focus on LGBTQ+ populations. Her current work evaluates LGBTQ+ young adults’ tobacco, alcohol, and nicotine use. Patterson speaks about the social and structural factors that contribute to queer young adults using combustible tobacco products like cigarettes and other nicotine vaping devices. She advocates for early-adulthood harm-reduction strategies and effective health communications to reduce substance use and cancer rates among queer adults.
