Sexuality, space, gender, and health: renewing geographical approaches to well-being in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer populations

Research on sexual orientation and gender identities, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ), has been limited in health geography compared with other sub-fields of the discipline. The reasons for this gap include both the logistical limitations of data on sexual orientation and the historical dominance of visible, measurable infectious, and chronic disease outcomes in medical geography research. While medical geographers were among the first to research HIV/AIDS diffusion among gay men, there is now something of a divide between qualitative geographers studying experience and embodiment and health science researchers examining the socio-spatial determinants of LGBTQ health outcomes. In the following article, we review the LGBTQ health inequalities research, emerging geographies of mental health and substance use among those identified as LGBTQ, and potential avenues for health geographers to re-engage with this field of study.