In Brief: Study Finds Mass. Bisexuals Face
Significant Health Disparities
Gayapolis
November 21, 2008
A group of researchers funded by the
Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) and
the Williams Project at UCLA will release a report
Nov. 20 showing that in Massachusetts LGB people
face great health disparities compared to their
straight neighbors.
Bisexuals in particular face a greater range of
health disparities, even compared to lesbian and gay
people. Study authors Kerith Jane Conron and Stewart
Landers presented the report to the Public Health
Council of the Massachusetts Department of Public
Health (DPH) Nov. 12; Conron and Landers conducted
the study in collaboration with Matthew Mimiaga.
The study found that compared to straight people,
bisexuals had greater problems in getting access to
health insurance, medical and dental providers, and
they had higher rates of heart disease, anxious and
depressed moods, suicidal thoughts in the past year,
and smoking. Bisexuals were more likely than
straight people to have been sexually assaulted both
over the last year and in over the course of their
lifetime. Compared to straight women, bi women were
more likely to report being limited in their
activities as the result of a disability, illegal
drug use over the last 30 days, and lifetime
intimate partner violence.
