By 2060, there will be more than 5 million sexual and/or gender minority (SGM) older adults aged 50+ living in the United States (Fredriksen-Goldsen & Kim, 2017). SGM is an umbrella term that includes, but is not limited to, individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, nonbinary (LGBTQ+), or who exhibit attractions and behaviors that do not align with heterosexual or traditional gender norms (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [NASEM], 2020). The SGM population continues to grow in size, and the terms used by SGM individuals to describe their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression continue to evolve (see Table 1). Deemed a health disparity population by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2016 (Pérez-Stable, 2016), SGM older adults are disproportionately affected by social, economic, and institutional discrimination that contributes to and even exacerbates their social and health inequities (NASEM, 2020). However, these inequities are not uniformly experienced by SGM subgroups, highlighting the importance of disaggregating data according to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI; NASEM, 2020).
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Flatt et al. (2021) studied this question.