Report shows LGBT community falls behind in HIV, overall health funding

Image via Funders for LGBTQ Issues
Image via Funders for LGBTQ Issues

A new report shows that foundation funding for LGBT health totals less than 0.5 percent of all health funding, and funding for HIV/AIDS is drastically out of proportion. The report was issued by Funders for LGBTQ Issues to coincide with an LGBT Health Funding Summit.

The report shows that of the nearly $3 billion that foundations invested in health issues annually, less than 0.5 percent is given to LGBT communities. The report covers the years 2011 to 2013.

Also, only 21 percent of U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS targeted LGBT communities despite the fact that gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men account for 64 percent of new HIV infections.

“Even as we make tremendous advances in legal equality for LGBTQ people in the U.S., we continue to face stark health disparities,” Ben Francisco Maulbeck, president of Funders for LGBTQ Issue, said in a press release. “Because of the stigma related to homophobia and transphobia, we are more likely to get sick, and less likely to get the care that we need when we are sick. I hope that Vital Funding and our LGBT Health Funding Summit spark new conversations and lead to new efforts among LGBTQ funders, HIV funders, and health funders to work together and address the health disparities faced by our communities.”

The LGBT Health Funding Summit is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and co-hosted by Funders Concerned About AIDS, Funders for LGBTQ Issues, and Grantmakers In Health.

To view the full report, click here.

Funders for LGBTQ Issues also released an extensive report last March detailing how southern LGBT nonprofits are being underfunded by national foundations.