A dossier of articles published in AJPH in August 2017 undertook a critical examination of a proposal by the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living to remove a sexual orientation question from the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants (NSOAAP).1 These articles asserted the importance of having reliable, comprehensive data on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people to advance health policy and programmatic goals and presented research showing the feasibility of collecting data on small populations such as LGBTQ older adults. The draft NSOAAP survey—with the sexual orientation question deleted—was subject to public review, and Administration for Community Living ultimately received nearly 14 000 comments from individuals and organizations, the majority arguing that the question should be retained.2 As a result of this extensive feedback, the agency reversed its decision and included a revised measure in the final survey, one that no longer conflated sexual orientation with measurement of a person’s gender identity. Researchers and advocates still rightly decried the lack of data to identify transgender older adults, but the agency’s reversal was nonetheless an important victory during a year of challenges for LGBTQ equality.
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