SALEM, Ore. — Oregon LGBTQ Project is noting special project funding from Gov. Tina Kotek’s signed budget bills this week.
She approved $1.25 million for data about LGBTQIA2S+ people in Oregon.
It was part of House Bill (HB) 5701, which she signed into law after putting some prospective funding projects on notice last week that they were at risk for line-item vetoes because she thought they did not appear to directly support her priority for Oregon: housing.
HB5701’s Section 426 outlines the funding which Oregon LGBTQ Project says includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or gender expansive, queer and/or questioning, intersex, asexual, and two-spirit (LGBTQIA2S+) people in Oregon.
HB5701 Section 426 says, “In addition to and not in lieu of any other appropriation, there is appropriated to the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, for the biennium ending June 30, 2025, out of the General Fund, the amount of $1,250,000, for distribution to Northwest Health Foundation II for comprehensive data collection and research on the lived experiences and social determinants of health of minority populations, based on sexual orientation and Enrolled Senate Bill 5701 (SB 5701-A) Page 48 gender identity, and Oregon state agencies’ policies and investments impacting these populations.”
Oregon LGBTQ Project (Project) says the State funding also is securing $850,000 from private foundations for the first-of-its-kind research.
The Project says Oregon has the highest per capita population of LGBTQ+ people of any state in the United States, with approximately 253,300 people, or 7.8% of Oregonians, identifying as LGBTQ+. That’s roughly equivalent to the population of Jackson County, Oregon’s 6th most populous county.
The Project says, “This number is already growing as more young people identify as LGBTQ+, and as LGBTQ+ people relocate to escape increasingly hostile policy environments in other states.”
It says while some data exist about the status of the LGBTQIAS2+ community in Oregon from state and federal sources, “there are still huge gaps in knowledge. In particular, there is little data on the health and wellbeing of queer and trans people who experience multiple intersecting forms of marginalization, such as LGBTQIA2S+ people of color or LGBTQIAS2+ people living in rural areas. This limits how responsive institutions and organizations can be to the needs of Oregon’s diverse LGBTQIA2S+ communities.”
It says the research will get comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data from LGBTQIA2S+ people across Oregon and from tribes of Oregon, including health, education, housing, economic, civic participation, and state and local policies and services serving LGBTQIA2S+ people “and what needs to change.”
