Federal Administration Praised for Taking Steps to End Health-Related Inequities Hurting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans
4/4/2011
Press Release
Contact: Roberta Sklar
917.704.6358 (cell)
Benefits seen for nearly 200 Community Centers
Serving over 600,000 LGBT People
WASHINGTON April 1 - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced a number of steps it was taking or recommending to the President to improve the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans. The agency said it was confident of the President’s support for the initiatives. They include or will include policies that explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in HHS employment and the administration of HHS programs, informing states that they have the legal authority to extend “spousal impoverishment” protections to same-sex domestic partners, increasing the number of federally-funded health surveys that collect sexual orientation and gender identity data, and encouraging health profession training programs to include LGBT cultural competency curricula.
“The steps taken over the last year and the ones announced today go a long way in ending cruel and unjust discrimination against LGBT people and their families in federally-supported health programs. We applaud the Administration and Secretary Sebelius for responding to our community’s needs in such humane and responsible ways,” said Terry Stone, Executive Director of CenterLink
The HHS announcement was in response to an April 2010 memorandum from the President that, in addition to directing HHS to put out rules prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination in hospital visitation, asked HHS to explore additional steps the agency could take to improve the lives of LGBT communities. The final hospital visitation rules were announced in November and took effect in January.
HHS committed itself to conducting outreach to organizations that serve LGBT communities to make them aware of available funding opportunities and, in Funding Opportunity Announcements, highlight programs that may particularly benefit LGBT populations.
“We are particularly heartened by planned steps to insure that the unique health needs of LGBT people are addressed through existing federal grant programs. For far too many years, our community’s needs were ignored and grant applications from LGBT community centers went straight to the trash bin simply because the words gay or lesbian appeared in them. Over the last two years, that has been changing and the steps announced today will accelerate that change,” said Mr. Stone.
HHS also said it will encourage new and existing health profession training programs, including behavioral health (e.g., mental health, substance abuse and HIV) programs, to include LGBT cultural competency curricula.
“This recommendation parallel’s the findings of the yesterday’s report from the Institute of Medicine that the lack of culturally competent providers is a significant barrier to quality health care for many LGBT people, particularly those who identify as transgender. In most places across the country, the local LGBT community center’s mental health and other programs are the only place where LGBT people get the kind of treatment they need and deserve,” Mr. Stone said.
About CenterLink: Founded in 1994, CenterLink serves over 200 LGBT community centers across the country in 46 states and the District of Columbia, as well as centers in Canada, Israel, Mexico, China and Peru. Serving over 600,000 people, the centers are the primary change agents in the national movement working toward the liberation and empowerment of LGBT people. CenterLink assists newly forming community centers and helps strengthen existing LGBT centers, through networking opportunities for center leaders, The organization has played an important role in supporting the growth of LGBT centers across the country and addressing the challenges they face, by helping them to improve their organizational and service delivery capacity and increase access to public resources. Based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, CenterLink works with other national organizations to advance the rights of LGBT individuals and to provide LGBT community centers with information and analysis of key issues.