Pride and Pandemic: Vulnerabilities to COVID-19 Among LGBT Adults in California

Kathryn O'Neill, a policy analyst at the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, shared findings from two reports she authored that describe the characteristics of the LGBT community in California with an emphasis on factors which increase vulnerability to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reports, which use data from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research's California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), showed that LGBT adults in the state are significantly at risk for health and economic harm from COVID-19. Among those risks, more than 200,00 LGBT people in California have one or more high-risk medical conditions including asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or HIV; 612,000 were living below 200% of the federal poverty level prior to the pandemic; and 134,000 lack health insurance. LGBT economic risks are related to factors such as poverty level, race/ethnicity, gender identity, housing, food security, and employment status.