LGBT Health: Celebrating Our Progress and Looking Ahead

LGBT Health: Celebrating Our Progress and Looking Ahead

June 9, 2016

By: Co-chairs of the HHS LGBT Issues Coordinating Committee

If there is a single thread which ties together the incredible work done by each member of the Health and Human Services family, it is the belief that every American deserves the same opportunity to live a healthy, happy life.
Protecting the rights – and supporting the health – of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is a central part of making that opportunity possible, which is why our department has made LGBT health and wellbeing a priority. It is also why today, Secretary Burwell is announcing a new Department-wide leader in this effort. As Senior Advisor for LGBT Health, Elliot Kennedy will work with leaders at HHS and across the public and private sectors to ensure that this essential work remains front and center. An experienced leader, Elliot previously served as staff for the LGBT Committee and as Special Expert for LGBT Affairs at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Elliot is stepping into this position at an exciting time, as we continue to fight for equal rights and protections that LGBT Americans deserve. As we write this, marriage equality is the law of the land, states are increasingly moving to ban the harmful practice of conversion therapy for minors, and transgender people have even greater access to health care coverage than before. And just a few weeks ago, we took an important step forward towards making discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex stereotyping in health care a thing of the past with the publishing of the Final Rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.
READ MORE: LGBT Health: Celebrating Our Progress and Looking Ahead