Abstract
ABSTRACTRelative to the general population, lesbian and bisexual (LB) women are overrepresented in the military and are significantly more likely to have a history of military service compared to all adult women. Due to institutional policies and stigma associated with a gay or lesbian identity, very little empirical research has been done on this group of women veterans. Available data suggest that compared to heterosexual women veterans, LB women veterans are likely to experience heightened levels of prejudice and discrimination, victimization, including greater incidence of rape, as well as adverse health and substance use disorders. They are also likely to encounter a host of unique issues when accessing health care, including fears of insensitive care and difficulty disclosing sexual orientation to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) providers. Training of staff and providers, education efforts, outreach activities, and research on this subpopulation are critical to ensure equitable and high quality service delivery.
Highlights
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals have long served in the US military, despite a variety of policies that until very recently were designed to keep them out of service
Very little is known about Lesbian and bisexual (LB) women veterans’ military experiences and health sequelae, though a 2004 report demonstrated that women were disproportionately impacted by Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), as they made up 30 % of all DADT discharges despite comprising only 14 % of the force.[6]
Researchers, providers, and educators must address this subpopulation of women veterans and their specific needs if we are to fulfill the mission of serving America’s women veterans and providing equitable health care
Summary
Gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals have long served in the US military, despite a variety of policies that until very recently were designed to keep them out of service. According to the 2000 census, nearly one million gay and lesbian Americans are veterans.[1] Lesbian and bisexual (LB) women, in particular, are more likely to serve than gay and bisexual men and have greater representation in the military (10.7 %) than in the general population (4.2 %).[1,2,3,4,5] Very little is known about LB women veterans’ military experiences and health sequelae, though a 2004 report demonstrated that women were disproportionately impacted by Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), as they made up 30 % of all DADT discharges despite comprising only 14 % of the force.[6] There are only a handful of empirical studies on LGB veterans (see Table 1),[2,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16] and of these, only three have focused on women.[8,9,14]. Several studies have demonstrated that LB women are more likely to report sexual and physical abuse in both childhood and adolescence,[27,28,29,30] as well as higher levels of sexual assault in adulthood.[28,31,32] Data from populationbased studies indicate that sexual minority status among women is associated with hazardous drinking,[33,34,35,36,37]
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