US Health Sec. Sebelius Wants To Know What Queers Are Sick And Tired Of

On Tuesday, Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said that the department plans on “market testing” federal health surveys with questions designed to get health data on LGBTs.

Sebelius says, “The problem is that it’s never been collected, and… we have to figure out… how to ask questions in a way that they elicit accurate responses, because collecting data that doesn’t give an accurate picture is not very helpful in the first place. And there has been so little attempt… to ask questions about LGBT health issues that we don’t even know how to ask them.”

This is an important issue because this past March the US National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine reported a dearth of data when it comes to queer health issues, meaning that doctors and other healthcare providers don’t know enough about LGBT health need to treat us effectively.

She didn’t mention when they’d finish the testing and begin including queer questions on federal surveys nationwide. So try not to get sick until then.