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“We want this study to reset movement priorities and transform the public conversation on LGBTQ+ women’s needs and lives.”

NEW YORK (PRWEB)
June 29, 2021

Today, on the penultimate day of Pride Month, a group of seasoned LGBTQ+ activists and scholars launched the historic National LGBTQ+ Women*s Community Survey, the first comprehensive national study to gather data about the life experiences, needs, and priorities of LGBTQ+ women in the United States.

“LGBTQ+ women live our lives, build families, contribute to our communities, achieve great successes, and face major challenges every day, every month of the year,” said Urvashi Vaid, Director of the National LGBTQ+ Women*s Community Survey. “We are excited to launch this initiative to develop a more comprehensive picture of LGBTQ+ women’s lives and experiences. Launching this survey is a perfect capstone to Pride Month, and we hope tens of thousands of queer women will participate.”

As a unique national, community-initiated research project, the National LGBTQ+ Women*s Community Survey fills a gap left by federal surveys that collect similar information from the US population but do not include LGBTQ+ identifiers. Once collected, the survey data will have innumerable applications, including policy advocacy, political organizing, allocation of social services, and identification of areas for additional research.

“Knowledge is power, and historically, it’s been up to us to build that knowledge together,” said Dr. Jaime M. Grant, Research Director of the National LGBTQ+ Women*s Community Survey. “There is so much missing from the knowledge base on LGBTQ+ women, from a lack of research frameworks that invite all LGBTQ+ women into a study, to ignorance about what actually matters to us, to erroneous assumptions about our partners and families. We want this study to reset movement priorities and transform the public conversation on LGBTQ+ women’s needs and lives.”

The survey will cover a broad range of topics about the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ women—from education and health care to family life and relationships, from work and housing to religion and civic engagement—and is expected to be in the field for six months, with findings shared in 2022.

“Audre Lorde said, ‘There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not lead single-issue lives.’ What we’re doing here is quantifying Audre Lorde,” said Dr. Alyasah Ali Sewell, Senior Research and Data Analyst for the National LGBTQ+ Women*s Community Survey and Associate Professor of Sociology at Emory University. “We’re gathering information about LGBTQ+ women’s whole selves and whole lives, not just focusing on health or workplace experiences or relationships. That’s how we will truly identify and meet the needs of LGBTQ+ women in this country.”

The National LGBTQ+ Women*s Community Survey is a project of Justice Work, a think tank and action lab led by veteran lesbian activist Urvashi Vaid, and is being conducted in partnership with Dr. Sewell at Emory University. Over 150 LGBTQ+ community organizations have signed on as partners to help distribute the survey.

The survey is available in both English and Spanish and can be found online at lgbtqwomensurvey.org/survey.

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