Gun Violence Against Sexual and Gender Minorities in the United States: A Review of Research Findings and Needs

June is the month when we annually celebrate LGBT pride and commemorate the Stonewall riots, which were an important turning point in the movement for the rights and well-being of sexual and gender minorities in the United States and elsewhere. On June 12, 2016, a gunman opened fire in the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Pulse was a gay club, and June 12 was Latin night. People of different backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities, and ethnicities were there as patrons, performers, and employees, and most were young and Latinx. The gunman brutally murdered 49 people and wounded 53. Mass shootings and hate crimes targeting LGBT people are especially potent forms of violence. They terrorize not only those immediately and physically impacted, but the entire community. They powerfully reinforce the sense that LGBT people must practice constant vigilance to protect themselves from stigma and violence. They shatter an already fragile sense of security and teach LGBT people that places they thought were safe may not be. Gay bars and clubs have historically been safe venues for LGBT people and their friends to gather, be themselves, have fun, meet others, and build community—a haven when families, schools, workplaces, and religious communities are unwelcoming or worse. While mass shootings like the one at Pulse, or at houses of worship, schools, and elsewhere, receive and deserve extensive media and public attention, they are an uncommon form of firearm violence in our country relative to other types of violence. As this report details, among firearm deaths each year in the general U.S. population, about 60% are suicides and about 37% are homicides, many of which happen between current or former intimate partners. Thus, when we think about gun violence and how to prevent it, our view must be broad and multi-faceted. As we discuss in this report, many questions about gun violence against sexual and gender minorities in this country are unanswered or unexplored. For example, research shows elevated prevalence of suicide attempts among LGBT people, and that guns are usually lethal when used in an attempted suicide. But, we have almost no research on suicide deaths of LGBT people (or all sexual and gender minorities) and the role of firearms in them. Without such research, it is challenging to design prevention strategies. By mapping existing research and research needs on a variety of gun violence topics, we hope that this report will inform understanding, spark better data collection and insightful studies, and ultimately help create effective interventions

Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity, Socioeconomic Status, and Health across the Life Course (SOGI-SES) Survey with Specifications

SOGI-SES used an online survey; there was no paper survey option. The programmed survey uses extensive skip patterns to simplify content flow and decrease burden for respondents. All survey questions, skip logic, and programmer notes are included below. For data analysis purposes, we recommend using this document in combination with the study’s Codebooks, Index (located at the end of the Restricted-Use Codebook) and associated User Guide available at Add Health’s website - https://addhealth.cpc.unc.edu/

Monitoring the health of transgender and other gender minority populations: Validity of natal sex and gender identity survey items in a U.S. national cohort of young adults

Background: A barrier to monitoring the health of gender minority (transgender) populations is the lack of brief, validated tools with which to identify participants in surveillance systems. Methods: We used the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), a prospective cohort study of U.S. young adults (mean age = 20.7 years in 2005), to assess the validity of self-report measures and implement a two-step method to measure gender minority status (step 1: assigned sex at birth, step 2: current gender identity). A mixed-methods study was conducted in 2013. Construct validity was evaluated in secondary data analysis of the 2010 wave (n = 7,831). Cognitive testing interviews of close-ended measures were conducted with a subsample of participants (n = 39). Results: Compared to cisgender (non-transgender) participants, transgender participants had higher levels of recalled childhood gender nonconformity age < 11 years and current socially assigned gender nonconformity and were more likely to have ever identified as not completely heterosexual (p < 0.001). No problems with item comprehension were found for cisgender or gender minority participants. Assigned sex at birth was interpreted as sex designated on a birth certificate; transgender was understood to be a difference between a person’s natal sex and gender identity. Participants were correctly classified as male, female, or transgender. Conclusions: The survey items performed well in this sample and are recommended for further evaluation in languages other than English and with diverse samples in terms of age, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status

Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity, Socioeconomic Status, and Health across the Life Course (SOGI-SES) User Guide: Study Overview

The Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity, Socioeconomic Status, and Health across the Life Course Study (SOGI-SES) collected new survey data to support exploration of the relationships among sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, same-sex romantic and sexual behaviors, socioeconomic status, and health. The study was designed and conducted under the direction of the co-PIs, Carolyn T. Halpern from the Carolina Population Center (CPC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Kerith J. Conron from the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). SOGI-SES is funded by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (Grant numbers: 1R01HD087365 and R01 HD087365-03S1)