The Human Rights Campaign released its 2012 Healthcare Equality Index today in an event at DC’s Howard University Hospital. Dr. Wayne Frederick, the hospital’s deputy senior vice president for health sciences, and HRC president Chad Griffin hosted the event, which included remarks from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Griffin and Shane Snowdon, the director of HRC’s new LGBT Health and Aging Program, described how the annual Healthcare Equality Index rates hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country on the quality of care they provide to LGBT people and their families. This year’s report surveys over 400 facilities in 32 states and the District of Columbia across four areas of care:

1. LGBT-inclusive patient nondiscrimination policies
2. Visitation policies that provide equal access for same-sex partners and their children
3. LGBT-inclusive employment nondiscrimination policies
4. Training in LGBT patient-centered care

Facilities that meet all of these “Core Four” criteria for equitable and inclusive care are designated “Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality.” Of this year’s 407 rated facilities, more than half received Leader status, including Howard University Hospital, which is HBCU-affiliated.

New to this year’s report is the emphasis on training. So far in 2012, HRC has provided training in LGBT patient care to over 1,000 hospital staff, including health care providers and senior administrators. Such training is a crucial part of knocking down barriers to care for LGBT people, since recent studies have indicated that the majority of medical schools do not sufficiently train their students in providing culturally and clinically competent care for LGBT patients.

Snowdon also emphasized the importance of ongoing LGBT cultural competency training in heath care facilities in the 18 states not represented in this year’s report. Many of these states have no legal protections for LGBT people and their families, making staff and provider training a crucial part of ensuring that LGBT patients receive the respectful and high-quality care they need.

The New York Senate and Assembly have both passed a new cyberbullying provision that extends the effects of the Dignity For All Students Act passed two years ago. The LGBT-inclusive amendment defines cyberbullying as “harassment or bullying that occurs through any form of electronic communication” and will have the following effects:

[It will] establish protocols to respond to cyberbullying, harassment, bullying and discrimination, including designating a school official to receive and promptly investigate reports; take actions to prevent recurrences; coordinate with law enforcement when appropriate; and develop a bullying prevention strategy; and provide notice to all school community members of the school’s policies. It would also set training requirements for current and new school employees.

Cyberbullying is difficult to track, but various studies have shown that is nevertheless prevalent. The Pew Research Center found that 90 percent of teens encounter cyberbullying, 21 percent of whom admitted to joining in. An AP-MTV poll found that half of all young people regularly encounter discriminatory slang online, and just as many believe it’s okay to use such language with their friends. In such a vastly unmoderated space as the Internet, training educators to recognize and intervene when cyberbullying takes place is essential for protecting young people from its detrimental effects.

Today Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius joined nationwide celebrations of LGBT Pride Month with the release of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) LGBT Coordinating Committee Report. The report lays out nine objectives for advancing LGBT health in areas such as research, health care reform, cultural competency, nondiscrimination, and funding for programs serving LGBT communities.

The HHS LGBT Coordinating Committee co-chairs, Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Aging and Administrator for Community Living Kathy Greenlee, and HHS Deputy Counsel Ken Choe, presented the HHS LGBT health objectives for 2012:

1. The National Institutes of Health will release a report that identifies the gaps and opportunities in its research portfolios in light of the recommendations from the 2011 Institute of Medicine report, The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding.
2. Through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, the Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA) will award up to eight grants to organizations to connect transgender women of color with HIV prevention and care services.
3. Building on the Department’s existing anti-obesity efforts, the HHS Office on Women’s Health will fund pilot studies in five locations to identify effective ways of reducing obesity in lesbian and bisexual women. The focus will be on women with risk factors for conditions that are caused by obesity, such as hypertension and diabetes.
4. Several Community Transformation Grant awardees under the Affordable Care Act included LGBT communities among their target populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will work with these grantees, including by providing additional funds, to assess the benefits of chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs for LGBT communities.
5. For the first time, CDC will release data from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey on sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence by sexual orientation. CDC will also provide resources to bring broader attention to these concerns.
6. Building on the Department’s existing tobacco control efforts, the Food and Drug Administration will launch multiple advertising programs targeted to youth and young adults, including LGBT youth, who are at risk of using tobacco.
7. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and HRSA will develop a plan to disseminate existing tools to behavioral health and primary care practitioners to help them assess, treat, and refer LGBT clients in a culturally competent manner.
8. The Administration for Children and Families will take steps to establish LGBT-inclusive requirements for all runaway homeless youth program grantees. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation will disseminate information about LGBT runaway and homeless youth on www.FindYouthInfo.gov and will conduct research on the needs of LGBT homeless youth.
9. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Administration for Community Living will release a training video about the rights of LGBT older Americans in nursing homes, hospice, and home health care. In addition, CMS will clarify its rules governing nursing home visitation rights, which are already in place and apply equally to same-sex partners.

The 2012 report also assesses the Department’s progress on its commitment last year to several recommended actions to improve the health and wellbeing of LGBT communities.

Secretary Sebelius credited President Obama’s 2010 directive on hospital visitation rights for same-sex partners with sparking coordinated efforts across the Department to advance LGBT health. Under this directive, HHS created rules protecting the right of each individual to choose the loved ones who visit them in the hospital and to be with their families in their greatest time of need, no matter how their families are formed.

Other HHS activities over the last two years have included:

• Releasing a strategy for collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity on the National Health Interview Survey.
• Awarding funds to Fenway Health in Boston to create a training center on LGBT health for community health centers.
• Adding a filter to www.healthcare.gov that allows consumers to search for health insurance plans that offer domestic partner benefits.
• Relaunching www.stopbullying.gov with content specific to LGBT youth.
• Releasing the first objective for the LGBT Health topic area in Healthy People 2020 and hosting a Healthy People 2020 webinar on transgender health.
• Co-hosting the first White House conference on LGBT Health.

A new study from the University of Missouri finds that young adults who are bi or who are still exploring their sexuality have a higher propensity to abuse alcohol or engage in other risky behaviors than those who are exclusively straight or gay. Researcher Amelia Talley explained that the stress of biphobia may play a significant role:

TALLEY: Bisexuals and students whose sexual orientation was in flux reported the heaviest drinking and most negative consequences from alcohol use, such as uncontrolled drinking and withdrawal symptoms. Those groups reported drinking to relieve anxiety and depression at higher rates than strictly heterosexual or homosexual individuals. One possible explanation is that people who aren’t either completely heterosexual or homosexual may feel stigmatized by both groups.

Exclusively homosexual and heterosexual persons drank at roughly the same rate and reported drinking to enhance enjoyment of social situations. The other sexual minority groups tended to report more alcohol misuse. This suggests that it may be the stressful process of developing one’s sexual identity that contributes to problematic drinking, just as people in any difficult situation in life may turn to alcohol to alleviate stress.

Numerous other studies have documented that effects of biphobia and the unique challenges that bi people face as a result. The stigma that the bi community faces from both the straight and gay communities is a reminder of how limited society’s understanding of sexuality is in general. Accepting people for who they are is always a healthier choice than forcing them into narrow boxes.

This weekend at the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Mitt Romney spoke via satellite and reminded conference-goers that he believes opposite-sex parents are better than same-sex parents:

ROMNEY: We need to strengthen the commitment that exists in this country to family. I hope to be able to talk to young people and tell them how important it is to get married before they have children because the opportunity for a mom and a dad to help guide the life of a child gives them such an enormous advantage in their lives going forward.

Ryan Williams, a Romney spokesman, verified that the candidate believes children are better off with straight parents, saying, “This is what he’s been saying forever. He’s always said that the ideal setting to raise a child is with the mom and the dad.”

Watch Romney’s remarks:

It was only a month ago that Romney walked back his support of same-sex adoption in just a few days’ time, demonstrating his complete lack of understanding of both social science and the patchwork of current state adoption laws. Regardless of the recent hullabaloo over Mark Regnerus’ obviously faulty study, 30 years of research confirm that same-sex parents can raise happy and healthy children just as effectively as opposite-sex couples. Romney’s positions against marriage equality and same-sex adoption are blatantly discriminatory and do nothing to support the well-being of any family.