Health Impacts of Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation

In this episode, our host, Dr. English, talks with CGI co-founder, Dr. Janet Cummings, about the health impacts, including mental and behavioral health impacts, of recent legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 2021 was the worst year in recent history for state legislation attacking LGBTQ equality. A total of 268 anti-equality bills were filed, 27 of which were signed into law, including 13 that specifically targeted the rights of transgender youth. Even though 2022 is still relatively young, it’s already shaping up to be similar to 2021 in terms of discriminatory state legislation. Merely introducing anti-transgender bills and peddling anti-transgender rhetoric has already had a damaging impact.  A new Trevor Project survey shows that a startling 85% of transgender or gender non-binary youth say their mental health has been negatively affected by these legislative attacks. In today’s episode, Dr. Cummings and I will address what we know about the health impacts of anti-LGBTQ legislation, and CGI’s education and training focused on advocacy for the healthcare needs of the LGBTQ community. Guest Bio: Dr. Janet Cummings, Psy. D., is the daughter of Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings, an internationally-recognized psychologist and a clinical social worker. Dr. Cummings’ educational training includes a bachelor’s degree focus in Pre-med, minoring in Genetics/Molecular Biology and Linguistics, a Master’s Degree in Linguistics, and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University. Janet is the author of over two dozen journal articles and book chapters, and she has co-authored or co-edited ten books with her father. She served as adjunct professor at both the University of Nevada, Reno and The Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, MO. She was Co-founding Associate Director of the Doctor of Behavioral Health Program at Arizona State University, and served as a Professor and Co-founding Sponsor until 2014 when she co-founded Cummings Graduate Institute. She leads the medical literacy pillar for the program, and teaches Pathophysiology, Neuropathophysiology, and Psychopharmacology for CGI’s DBH Program, where she receives outstanding student ratings and is considered a favorite Professor. Links and Resources:  Legislation tracker by state: https://freedomforallamericans.org/legislative-tracker/anti-lgbtq-bills/ Proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation is associated with a small but statistically significant increase in texts to Crisis Text Line from LGBTQ youth. https://www.childtrends.org/publications/anti-lgbtq-policy-proposals-can-harm-youth-mental-health American Medical Association. (2022). Advocating for the LGBTQ Community Issue Brief https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2019-12/conversion-therapy-issue-brief.pdf AMA Talking Points: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2019-12/conversion-therapy-talking-points.pdf

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