Gay, Bisexual Troops More Likely to Suffer Sexual Asslts, Study Suggts |

Contents:

• NATNALLY REPRENTATIVE PREVALENCE TIMAT OF GAY, BISEXUAL, AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN WHO HAVE SERVED THE U.S. ARY
• AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN
• GAY, BISEXUAL TROOPS MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER SEXUAL ASSLTS, STUDY SUGGTS

NATNALLY REPRENTATIVE PREVALENCE TIMAT OF GAY, BISEXUAL, AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN WHO HAVE SERVED THE U.S. ARY

Ary who are gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex wh men (MSM) to rm the velopment of ary and other feral signWe analyzed data om the Natnal Surveys of Fay Growth to timate the number of U.

Men who were gay, bisexual, or MSM, and who had served the ary, pared to those who did not serve.

We stratified g hierarchil tegori of gay, bisexual, and other MSM to pare proportns the ary and general populatn.

AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN

23% of men self-reported as gay, bisexual, or other MSM among men who served the ary, pared to 4. 78% self-reported as gay among men who served the ary, pared to 2.

ConclnsThe proportn of men who intified as a gay was lower the ary than the general populatn. IntroductnHistorilly, timat of the number of ary personnel who are gay or bisexual have been ed to evaluate the impact of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy Uned Stat ary, and of same-sex marriage benefs for ary personnel by the Congrsnal Budget Office[1–5]. DADT was implemented 1994 to allow gay and bisexual men and women to serve the ary[6].

Yet the need remas for an accurate timate of the number of gay and bisexual ary personnel for the U. Accurate timat of the number of ary personnel who are gay or bisexual are necsary to liver optimal health servic, cludg the provisn of remend HIV and STD preventn and re servic, as well as other sexual, reproductive, and behavral health servic [8].

GAY, BISEXUAL TROOPS MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER SEXUAL ASSLTS, STUDY SUGGTS

While all ary personnel might be at risk of mental health or substance abe problems, pecially those who serve on bat tours, gay and bisexual ary personnel have been found to be at creased risk[15–20]. Gay and bisexual ary personnel might also experience stigma and victimizatn while servg[3, 21] studi have timated the percentage of U.

Ary personnel who were gay, bisexual, or other MSM, and methods are need that provi a direct, simple, and reliable timate. In this study, we ed a natnally reprentative survey to lculate a direct timate of the percentage of men who self-reported as gay, bisexual, or other MSM among men aged 18–44 years who had served the ary. Rponnts were asked about their sexual orientatn wh the qutn, “Do you thk of yourself as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or somethg else?

” wh rponse tegori of “Heterosexual”, “Homosexual”, “Bisexual”, “Somethg else”, or “Don’t know”. Rponnts were hierarchilly tegorized as gay if they rpond “Homosexual” and as bisexual if they rpond “Bisexual” to this qutn. ” If rponnts who had not reported their sexual orientatn as gay or bisexual but reported ≥ 1 male sex partner(s) were hierarchilly tegorized as other lculated the proportn of all U.