All inclusive Public Health--what about LGBT populations?

After attending an excellent and well-organized 5th European Public Health Conference with the main theme All inclusive Public Health, it felt appropriate to reflect on what factors are considered when talking about inclusion and exclusion regarding health concerns. During the last day of the conference, we heard some inspiring presentations highlighting the importance of awareness of inequalities based on being small, few or different and the responsibility to manage public health policies to overcome inequality in Europe's health based on ethnic or social background. Health disparities can be described as differences in incidence, prevalence, mortality, disease burden or other measure of adverse health between minority and majority population groups. 1 Awareness of health disparities in specific populations, in particular based on ethnical background, has increased during the past decades. Research on psychosocial factors such as discrimination , context and cultural views of health, which influence health disparities, has begun to increase our understanding of the mechanisms behind such inequalities. 1 In addition to ethnicity, disparities based on many other factors such as gender, age, socioeconomic status, geography and disability have been identified. During the past several years, public health policy and research have begun to address the issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations, 2 and many official public health agencies call for programmes addressing the specific needs of LGBT individuals. But is attention to LGBT populations of interest for public health research and policy makers, and should it be included as part of public health goals? LGBT populations are diverse and the level of specific public health concerns is most likely just as diverse. LGBT populations vary on all kinds of sociodemographic factors, e.g. ethnic, cultural, educational, income and education, as well as the degree to which their sexuality or gender identity is important to their self-definition. In some ways, similarities between LGBT and non-LGBT people might be greater than the similarities between individuals in various LGBT communities. However, despite many differences, LGBT individuals have similar experiences regarding stigma, discrimination, rejection and threat of violence, no matter where they live or what culture they belong to. 3–5 However, the level of acceptance for minority sexual orientations differs greatly by country. In the European Social Survey 2010, a question was used to assess level of acceptance of gay men and lesbians. The proportion of respondents who agreed to a statement that 'Gay men and lesbians should be free …