To: Robert R. Redfield, Director of the CDC
Stand against the federal government's potential erasure of LGBTQ individuals from the Behavioral...
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a population survey that collects behavioral health risk data at the state and local level. The BRFSS is a powerful tool for building health promotion activities that address health disparities.
BRFSS currently gives states the option of allowing respondents to identify their sexual orientation and gender identity. By revoking the option for states to ask these questions, the CDC is hindering the ability of researchers using these data to better understand and improve the health and well-being of LGBTQ people.
Why is this important?
The Northwestern University Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) is asking the public to join in standing against the erasure of LGBTQ identities.
On May 17th, The Williams Institute broke the news that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may no longer collect sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data through the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The potential removal of these LGBTQ questions from BRFSS is harmful to the nation’s ability to detect LGBTQ health disparities. Health and research institutions across the country, including ISGMH, have highlighted the importance of surveillance systems such as BRFSS in identifying and subsequently addressing the health disparities of LGBTQ populations. If the SOGI questions are removed from BRFSS, the federal government will have chosen not only to disregard the recommendations of experts in the field but to ignore its own guidelines to improve LGBTQ health data surveillance. The Healthy People 2020 Recommendations state that “Collecting SOGI data in health-related surveys and health records in order to identify LGBT health disparities,” is a critical method to improve LGBTQ health.
Read the full statement: http://isgmh.northwestern.edu/2018/05/18/isgmh-responds-to-planned-cdc-rollback-of-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-questions-in-the-behavioral-risk-factor-surveillance-system-brfss/