IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v196y2018icp158-165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

State-level climate, anti-discrimination law, and sexual minority health status: An ecological study

Author

Listed:
  • Solazzo, Alexa
  • Brown, Tony N.
  • Gorman, Bridget K.

Abstract

How social and legal climate influence LGB health is an under-studied topic. In response, this study examines whether the lesbian/gay/bisexual (LGB) climate index and presence of anti-discrimination law show population health significance for U.S. sexual minorities. The LGB climate index uses survey data collected between 2012 and 2013 to gauge states' support of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, whereas anti-discrimination law captures any state-level law that makes it illegal to discriminate because of sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public accommodations. We merge these two contextual measures with 2011–2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) aggregated, individual-level survey data, from which we generate three measures of state-level rates: excellent self-rated health, routine health care utilization, and health insurance among self-identified lesbian/gay and bisexual adults. We find that the LGB climate index associates positively with rates of excellent self-rated health, routine health care utilization, and health insurance—but only for states with anti-discrimination laws, and only among lesbian/gay adults. Analyses confirm salubrious synergism between a sexually-minority-friendly climate and anti-discrimination law—together these two contextual measures interact to protect lesbian/gay population health.

Suggested Citation

  • Solazzo, Alexa & Brown, Tony N. & Gorman, Bridget K., 2018. "State-level climate, anti-discrimination law, and sexual minority health status: An ecological study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 158-165.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:196:y:2018:i:c:p:158-165
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617306986
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.033?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krieger, N. & Chen, J.T. & Coull, B. & Waterman, P.D. & Beckfield, J., 2013. "The unique impact of abolition of Jim Crow Laws on reducing inequities in infant death rates and implications for choice of comparison groups in analyzing societal determinants of health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(12), pages 2234-2244.
    2. Thomas C. Buchmueller & Christopher S. Carpenter, 2012. "The Effect of Requiring Private Employers to Extend Health Benefit Eligibility to Same‐Sex Partners of Employees: Evidence from California," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 388-403, March.
    3. Hatzenbuehler, M.L. & O'Cleirigh, C. & Grasso, C. & Mayer, K. & Safren, S. & Bradford, J., 2012. "Effect of same-sex marriage laws on health care use and expenditures in sexual minority men: A quasi-natural experiment," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(2), pages 285-291.
    4. Dahlhamer, J.M. & Galinsky, A.M. & Joestl, S.S. & Ward, B.W., 2016. "Barriers to health care among adults identifying as sexual minorities: A US national study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(6), pages 1116-1122.
    5. Michael Martell, 2013. "Do ENDAs End Discrimination for Behaviorally Gay Men?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 147-169, June.
    6. Marcus Dillender, 2015. "Health Insurance And Labor Force Participation: What Legal Recognition Does For Same-Sex Couples," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(2), pages 381-394, April.
    7. Hatzenbuehler, M.L. & Keyes, K.M. & Hasin, D.S., 2009. "State-level policies and psychiatric morbidity in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(12), pages 2275-2281.
    8. Buchmueller, T. & Carpenter, C.S., 2010. "Disparities in health insurance coverage, access, and outcomes for individuals in same-sex versus different-sex relationships, 2000-2007," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(3), pages 489-495.
    9. Bridget Gorman & Justin Denney & Hilary Dowdy & Rose Medeiros, 2015. "A New Piece of the Puzzle: Sexual Orientation, Gender, and Physical Health Status," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1357-1382, August.
    10. Bhatia, R. & Jones, P. & Reicker, Z., 2011. "Competitive foods, discrimination, and participation in the national school lunch program," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(8), pages 1380-1386.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Perales, Francisco & Todd, Abram, 2018. "Structural stigma and the health and wellbeing of Australian LGB populations: Exploiting geographic variation in the results of the 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 190-199.
    2. Fox, Samara D. & Griffin, Randi H. & Pachankis, John E., 2020. "Minority stress, social integration, and the mental health needs of LGBTQ asylum seekers in North America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    3. Sunday Azagba & Lingpeng Shan & Keely Latham, 2019. "Overweight and Obesity among Sexual Minority Adults in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-9, May.
    4. Chan, Randolph C.H., 2024. "The mental health benefits and costs of critical consciousness: A longitudinal investigation of the co-occurring positive and negative effects of critical consciousness among sexual minorities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    5. Wittlin, Natalie M. & Dovidio, John F. & Burke, Sara E. & Przedworski, Julia M. & Herrin, Jeph & Dyrbye, Liselotte & Onyeador, Ivuoma N. & Phelan, Sean M. & van Ryn, Michelle, 2019. "Contact and role modeling predict bias against lesbian and gay individuals among early-career physicians: A longitudinal study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Gilbert Gonzales & Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, 2018. "The Association between State Policy Environments and Self-Rated Health Disparities for Sexual Minorities in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-11, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carpenter, Christopher S. & Gonzales, Gilbert & McKay, Tara & Sansone, Dario, 2020. "Effects of the Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Mandate on Health Insurance Coverage for Individuals in Same-Sex Couples," IZA Discussion Papers 13119, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Gilbert Gonzales & Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, 2018. "The Association between State Policy Environments and Self-Rated Health Disparities for Sexual Minorities in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-11, June.
    3. Christopher S. Carpenter & Samuel T. Eppink & Gilbert Gonzales & Tara McKay, 2021. "Effects of Access to Legal Same‐Sex Marriage on Marriage and Health," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(2), pages 376-411, March.
    4. Dimitrios Nikolaou, 2023. "Effects of marriage equality legislation on sexual health of the US population," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 107-133, January.
    5. Sansone, Dario, 2019. "Pink work: Same-sex marriage, employment and discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    6. Kiana Wilkins, 2022. "Intersectional Immunity? Examining How Race/Ethnicity and Sexual Orientation Combine to Shape Influenza Vaccination Among US Adults," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(6), pages 2585-2612, December.
    7. Dillender, Marcus, 2015. "The effect of health insurance on workers’ compensation filing: Evidence from the affordable care act's age-based threshold for dependent coverage," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 204-228.
    8. Hatzenbuehler, Mark L. & Prins, Seth J. & Flake, Morgan & Philbin, Morgan & Frazer, M. Somjen & Hagen, Daniel & Hirsch, Jennifer, 2017. "Immigration policies and mental health morbidity among Latinos: A state-level analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 169-178.
    9. repec:mrr:papers:wp341 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Hswen, Yulin & Qin, Qiuyuan & Williams, David R. & Viswanath, K. & Brownstein, John S. & Subramanian, S.V., 2020. "The relationship between Jim Crow laws and social capital from 1997–2014: A 3-level multilevel hierarchical analysis across time, county and state," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    11. Alexa Solazzo & Bridget Gorman & Justin Denney, 2020. "Does Sexual Orientation Complicate the Relationship Between Marital Status and Gender With Self-rated Health and Cardiovascular Disease?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 599-626, April.
    12. Madina Agénor & J. Wyatt Koma & Ashley E. Pérez & Alex McDowell & Gilbert Gonzales, 2023. "Differences in Health Insurance and Usual Source of Care Among Racial/Ethnic and Sexual Orientation Subgroups of U.S. Women and Men," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(3), pages 1-26, June.
    13. Saxby, Karinna & de New, Sonja C. & Petrie, Dennis, 2020. "Structural stigma and sexual orientation disparities in healthcare use: Evidence from Australian Census-linked-administrative data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    14. Diederik Boertien & Daniele Vignoli, 2019. "Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Matters for the Subjective Well-being of Individuals in Same-Sex Unions," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(6), pages 2109-2121, December.
    15. Russell Spiker, 2021. "Same-Sex, Same Health? Health Concordance Among Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1313-1340, December.
    16. Everett, Bethany G. & Hatzenbuehler, Mark L. & Hughes, Tonda L., 2016. "The impact of civil union legislation on minority stress, depression, and hazardous drinking in a diverse sample of sexual-minority women: A quasi-natural experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 180-190.
    17. Dimitrios Nikolaou, 2022. "Same‐sex marriage laws, LGBT hate crimes, and employment discrimination charges," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(3), pages 869-905, January.
    18. Hswen, Yulin & Sewalk, Kara C. & Alsentzer, Emily & Tuli, Gaurav & Brownstein, John S. & Hawkins, Jared B., 2018. "Investigating inequities in hospital care among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals using social media," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 92-97.
    19. Sabia, Joseph J. & Wooden, Mark & Nguyen, Thanh Tam, 2018. "Sexual identity, same-same relationships, and health dynamics: New evidence from Australia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 24-36.
    20. Alexa L. Solazzo & Bridget K. Gorman & Justin T. Denney, 2017. "Cancer Screening Utilization Among U.S. Women: How Mammogram and Pap Test Use Varies Among Heterosexual, Lesbian, and Bisexual Women," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 36(3), pages 357-377, June.
    21. Christopher S. Carpenter, 2020. "The Direct Effects of Legal Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Evidence From Massachusetts," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(5), pages 1787-1808, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:196:y:2018:i:c:p:158-165. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.