Since its founding in 1975, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus has been an association of public health professionals committed to furthering LGBT issues within the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the field of public health at large. In 2019, the caucus executive committee voted to update the caucus name to be more inclusive and better reflect the diversity of caucus membership, officially changing our name to the LGBTQ Health Caucus.

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Our programs

Our primary focus is to prepare an outstanding scientific session of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit public health research at each year's APHA Annual Meeting.  

For 2021, the LGBTQ Health Caucus has decided to make our scientific program 100% virtual to ensure it is as accessible as possible to all our members and presenters.

The Grant Farmer Memorial Scholarship has closed for 2021! Read about our winners on the Awards page.

Our caucus works on crafting policy statements for APHA, and works with other LGBTQ and Two-Spirit Health organizations to support critical health policy issues throughout the year.

 We offer a student mentorship program, and support LGBTQ and Two-Spirit public health professionals at every stage of their careers!  If you are interested in getting involved, please email us at APHALGBTQ@gmail.com !

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APHA LGBTQ Health Caucus Reflections and Next Steps Addressing Anti-Black Racism and State Violence

Dear members of the LGBTQ Health Caucus:

We write this message to you today to share with you our anger, sadness, solidarity, and commitment to justice in the face of enduring and pervasive anti-Black structural racism and police brutality toward Black people and communities, including Black LGBTQ people.

We also write to condemn the escalation in state-sponsored violence perpetrated by federal, state, and local governments in response to the necessary and powerful uprisings led by Black people and communities that are sweeping cities and towns across the nation. We, too, demand justice for victims of racist violence, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, among many, many others, both named and unnamed.

Racism is a public health crisis. Racism is an LGBTQ health crisis. State-sponsored violence has long been a part of our history as LGBTQ people. It disproportionately impacts Black and brown LGBTQ people, and particularly so Black and brown transgender women. The public health data are clear. Now is the time for each of us – and particularly White and other non-Black LGBTQ people – to find actions, large and small, that actively dismantle the interlocking systems of white supremacy, anti-Black racism, cissexism, heterosexism, gender binarism, ableism, xenophobia, and more, that keep so many in our communities from experiencing our full human right to health and wellbeing, to bodily autonomy, to existence.

To our Black community members: We see you. We stand with you. We are committing to do more to center the voices and experiences of Black LGBTQ people now and moving forward. As a start, we are committing to having a panel dedicated to addressing anti-Black racism among Black LGBTQ people at the 2021 APHA Annual Meeting. We look forward to seeing you there and working together to make sure that our organization addresses the deleterious impact of anti-Black racism on Black LGBTQ people through our programming, processes, and procedures.

To our White community members: We invite you to start and/or level up the dialogues you are having about dismantling white supremacy and anti-Black structural racism – as Black people have been doing this intellectual labor for a long time – and challenge their manifestations in your families, communities, groups, organizations, and institutions.

To our non-Black POC community members: We invite you to to consider and focus your allyship toward combatting anti-Black racism and standing in solidarity with Black people.

Below we have offered several types of resources to draw on: some for the health, wellbeing, and collective- and self-care of our Black community members and others for our non-Black community members to take action against anti-Black racism.

We say again, because it still needs to be said, that Black Lives Matter. Black Women’s Lives Matter. Black Queer Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter. We join you in working toward making these words our reality.

With love and solidarity,

The Executive Committee of the American Public Health Association LGBTQ Health Caucus