KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - Public Health - Seattle & King County will soon become the first public health agency in the United States to publish wide-ranging, general health information for lesbians and gay men on its website. Development and publication of these online materials is made possible by a $10,000 grant from the National Library of Medicine.
"Culturally-appropriate health information for lesbians and gay men on topics other than HIV is difficult to find on the Internet, and what is there is not indexed in a central location for easy review and retrieval," said Dr. Alonzo Plough, Director of Public Health - Seattle & King County. "This grant permits us to address this disparity, and assure that appropriate and accurate health information for sexual minorities is available and easy-to-find online."
"Despite the increasing amount of medical information available on the World Wide Web, no resource targeting the unique needs of the lesbian and gay community currently exists," said Dr. Donald Abrams, President of the national Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. "The efforts of Public Health - Seattle & King County will definitely fill a void and be a service to our entire community."
"Access to reliable information is a first step in getting care and preventing the many health problems that disproportionately affect our community," added Kathleen Stine, Co-Chair of the City of Seattle's Commission for Sexual Minorities. "These webpages will serve as an excellent resource for lesbians and gay men in Seattle and around the world."
The $10,000 award from the National Library of Medicine will fund development and promotion of webpages for lesbians and gay men about a broad range of general health issues. It also funds development and promotion of webpages that link researchers and health care providers serving sexual minorities to relevant studies, data, and other information available online from the National Library of Medicine.
Due largely to social issues (such as bias and discrimination), lesbians and gay men have increased risk for some health problems, and they are more likely than heterosexuals to receive sub-standard medical care or to remain silent about important health problems. For example, lesbians and gay men are nearly twice as likely as others are to smoke heavily. Lesbians have greater risk for various cancers and cardiovascular disease than other women do, and rates of syphilis and gonorrhea among gay men have increased dramatically in many urban areas of the United States. In addition, sexual minorities are at increased risk of hate crime victimization and suicide because of societal stigma and discrimination.
Content for these webpages will ultimately be determined by interviews and focus groups with lesbians and gay men as well as a rigorous review of available scientific literature. Local and national medical experts will review the materials developed for accuracy. Completed materials will be placed online by July of year 2000.
