Tegan & Sara Foundation Launches Innovative Survey of LGBTQ+ People

Tegan and Sara, award-winning musicians and founders of the Tegan and Sara Foundation, are launching a healthcare survey to understand experiences with the COVID-19 vaccine within the LGBTQ+ community.

The survey was developed by the Tegan and Sara Foundation in collaboration with health communications firm Entree Health and reviewed by researchers at SurveyMonkey, a leader in agile software solutions for customer experience, market research, and survey feedback, with contributions from physicians and healthcare experts specializing in LGBTQ+ healthcare.

Tegan and Sara, award-winning musicians and founders of TSF, said:

"We're passionate about healthcare access for LGBTQ+ people, and always have been. As advocates, we have focused on healthcare because we see how access to quality and affirming care affects our community. Most studies aren't asking queer people the questions that we need to get better care."

"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be one of the biggest healthcare crises in history. During this crucial time, we want to make sure the concerns of the LGBTQ+ community are heard - as we know they too rarely are. This survey is one of our efforts to give voice to queer people who are too often left out. The survey also includes the ability for people to share with us what has helped them to cope during this pandemic and where they get trusted health information."

COVID-19 has a unique impact on LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities (including people of color and rural communities). LGBTQ+ Americans are more likely to live in poverty and lack access to adequate medical care, paid medical leave, and basic necessities - all of these issues have been exacerbated by COVID-19.

Initial research suggests that LGBTQ+ people are more hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine than their straight, cisgender counterparts. The Tegan and Sara Foundation, which works to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ women and girls, seeks to understand these concerns, particularly with focus on race, ethnicity, income, geography, and age.

The completely-confidential survey, developed with leading LGBTQ+ healthcare experts, is designed to be sensitive to the needs of the community. While current gender is asked in this survey, there is no question asking sex assigned at birth. These questions are often asked insensitively and create unnecessary barriers for gender nonconforming, nonbinary, and transgender people. The survey does include 17 gender and sexual orientation choices, including the option to write-in or choose not to disclose.

To obtain a holistic understanding of the queer community, TSF will prioritize survey outreach and distribution to community-level organizations and underserved groups, to make sure that survey response includes the diverse voices of the LGBTQ+ community. Key to this outreach will be TSF's Community Grants partners, which reaches 39 grassroots organizations across the U.S. and Canada.

All members of the LGBTQ+ community in the US and Canada are encouraged to participate in the survey, which can be accessed here.

Photo Credit: Trevor Brady

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