Giving Compass' Take:

• This report provides an overview of LGBT community health centers in the U.S., including their origins and evolutions. The key finding is that there are significant service gaps — and changes need to be made.

• One of the biggest problems is with access. Many states do not have centers at all and those that do fail to adequately address the transgender population. Will more funding be able to fix these shortcomings?

• This is a delicate time for the LGBT population in general, as this article explains.

LGBT community health centers have been a major provider of health services to LGBT people in the U.S., but there are significant gaps in the types of services offered by centers across the country.

This study identified 213 LGBT community health centers operating in 37 states. No LGBT community health centers were operating in eleven states primarily clustered in the central U.S. (Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming), Alaska, or Hawaii.

Most LGBT community health centers provide wellness programs and services (72%), HIV/STI services (65%), and counseling services (52%). Among the services least available across health centers are transgender care services (10%), pharmacy services (8%), and psychiatric services (3%).

Read the full report on the origins, evolution and contemporary landscape of LGBT community health centers at IssueLab.