The Health ofSexual Minorities : Public Health Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Populations

awatiful nursehan nasution;

Despite the breadth of this book, there are many areas that it does not cover. These areas can be divided into two general types: The first includes work we omitted because there are many other resources to which the reader can turn. In this, we include HIV/AIDS and psychological/ mental health issues. HIV/AIDS has been a major, and predominant, area of investigation in gay men?s health research. Many books have been published to provide the reader good reviews of various areas of research within public health work on HIV/AIDS. These resources include books that provide comprehensive coverage of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) (e.g., Holmes, 1999; Emini, 2002) as well as books that address specific aspects of public health, such as HIV prevention (Peterson & DiClemente, 2000) and specific issues affecting HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay and bisexual men (Halkitis et al., 2005; Kalichman, 2005). Similarly, the area of mental health has been the topic of many books that provide an excellent discussion of psychological development across the life-span and mental health problems related to LGB populations (D?Augelli & Patterson, 1996, 2001; Garnets & Kimmel, 2002; Omoto & Kurtzman, 2006). The second area of interest excluded from this volume includes many emerging areas. We omitted them because we assessed that based on the existing research we could not commission reviews that were sufficiently comprehensive. To pursue such areas, the reader would be better served by searching scientific journals that can provide more timely coverage of emerging research areas. Such areas include topics that have not been fully developed in public health work to date. For example, the discussion of family levels of influence within the conceptual model that guided the organization of this book. Many important issues face LGBT individuals as they form families. Such a chapter might have covered issues related to conception, adoption, child rearing, cohabitation, and marriage among others. Notwithstanding notable works describing anthropologic and psychological perspectives on LGB families (Weston, 1991; Patterson & D?Augelli, 1998), public health research in this area is still forming, and links to health issues have not yet been carefully explicated, evaluated, and published in the peer-reviewed literature. The need for such work is particularly heightened as debate is growing on access for LGBT individuals to civil marriage and its public health implications (Herdt & Kertzner, 2006). There are also specific health concerns that have not received sufficient research attention (Dean et al., 2000)?for example, gay men may be at risk for anal cancer unrelated to HIV/AIDS?but the lack of research on such topics make them unsuitable for coverage in a book chapter.