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. 2015 Mar;2(1):84-7.
doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2014.0083. Epub 2015 Jan 13.

Collecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data in Suicide and Other Violent Deaths: A Step Towards Identifying and Addressing LGBT Mortality Disparities

Ann P Haas  1 , Andrew Lane  2 ; Working Group for Postmortem Identification of SO/GI
Collaborators, Affiliations

Collecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data in Suicide and Other Violent Deaths: A Step Towards Identifying and Addressing LGBT Mortality Disparities

Ann P Haas et al. LGBT Health. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Sexual orientation and gender identity (SO/GI) are not systematically recorded at time of death, limiting identification of mortality disparities in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. LGBT populations are thought to have elevated risk of suicide based on high rates of reported lifetime suicide attempts. Lack of data on suicide deaths, however, hinders understanding of the prevalence and patterns of suicide among LGBT populations and development of targeted interventions and prevention programs. This report describes recent efforts to address this knowledge gap by systematically collecting SO/GI information in the investigation of suicide and other violent deaths.

Keywords: LGBT mortality; gender identity; health disparities; mortality disparities; postmortem data collection; sexual orientation; suicide; violent death.

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