SOGI is defined as sexual orientation and gender identity. You may also see the term SOGIE, which refers to sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. Every individual has a unique SOGI that impacts their lived experiences. Collecting this information—in whatever form a person wishes to share with others—is important to delivering inclusive, intersectional healthcare services that take into consideration how these lived experiences shape personal history and identity and how they ultimately affect the way an individual successfully receives services and interacts with facility environments. Having a thorough understanding of each element of SOGI is vital to improving your organization’s SOGI practices.

• Sexual Orientation: Your identity in relation to your primary emotional or physical attraction to others
• Gender Identity: The gender you feel you are on the inside, which is separate from the sex you were assigned at birth
• Gender Expression: The unique ways in which you choose to embody or convey your sexual orientation and gender identity

Appropriate times to ask SOGI questions include during the standard intake process after someone has been admitted to your community, in counseling meetings, or during healthcare intake sessions. Intake demographics often begin with questions about sex, asking if a person is either male or female. But they rarely include gender identity or make it clear that questions about sex are really asking about the sex others assigned to us at birth. They don’t often gather details about sexual orientation and gender expression, and typical options for relationship status rarely go beyond single, married, and divorced. Failing to recognize the wide spectrum of SOGI that impacts all of our lives is not in the best interests of clients, residents, and patients during intake, or their friends and family members who may facilitate the process.

Understanding SOGI is the first step in creating a more inclusive intake experience, but why is SOGI important? For several reasons. Many people, in particular those of older generations, are afraid of the negative reactions or consequences that may come with outwardly identifying as members of the LGBTQ+ community.

When healthcare organizations offer a safe, optional opportunity to share SOGI information, they signal that they recognize and affirm the intersectional identities of all individuals, including LGBTQ+ older adults. And the impact of that for a business goes well beyond an individual’s time in the intake phase.

Top Benefits of SOGI Data Collection

• Collecting SOGI data can help meet organization requirements and measure the level of care access and quality that your team provides to populations
• Gathering SOGI demographics can be critical to patient care plans, organization decision-making, and general service improvement initiatives
• SOGI data can offer a more holistic view of clients to build rapport, avoid operating on assumptions, and determine what support they need
• Showing you understand the importance of SOGI as part of a person’s history and sense of identity sends a welcoming message to new community members
• Inclusive intake experiences can help older adults feel accepted and comfortable forming positive, healthy relationships with new living spaces, staff, and peers
• Recognizing SOGI can help employees feel safe deepening workplace relationships and delivering productive, high-quality services
• Strong inclusive practices can impact your business’s identity, showing prospective employees that you are a welcoming workplace for top talent
• Improving inclusivity can reduce harassment and gossip in your community and among employees, making it clear certain behaviors are not tolerated

The following Educational Materials and resources were developed to support the LBTQ Health Equity Initiative and encourage them to be downloaded, used in presentations, and distributed widely across provider networks and communities.  

• LBTQ Project one-pager
• Why Does SOGI Data Matter-Quick Guide
• When and How to Use SOGI Data-Quick Guide
• Best Practices for SOGI Data Collection
• Inclusive Words, Inclusive Care Survey Report

This list of resources provides an overview of current SOGI information materials. These offer valuable context on existing SOGI data information and training approaches.

• Vanessa Goes to the Doctor - an informational video that demonstrates LGBT-affirming and unwelcoming practices in a medical practice
• Improving Demographic Data Quality
• Resources for SOGI Data Collection
• The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services SOGI Data Action Plan
• Podcast Series: Collecting Data on SOGI, and Expression in Child Welfare
• National Institute of Health - Sexual & Gender Minority Measurement & Data
• Federal Evidence Agenda on LGBTQIA+ Equity
• California Department of Health Care Access and Information's Hospital Equity Data Toolkit

The Let’s Be Equity (LBeTQ) Series is a four-part webinar series created to support the LBTQ Health Equity Initiative. Explore key topics in SOGI data, health equity, and practical ways community members, providers, and researchers can take action.

• Launching Inclusive Cancer Care: The LBTQ SOGI Data Initiative - watch on YouTube
• Fighting Discrimination and Advocating for Ourselves - watch on YouTube
• Inclusive Practices within Electronic Health Records - watch on YouTube
• Insights on Inclusive Words, Inclusive Care Survey - watch on YouTube

If your organization would like to receive technical assistance (TA), receive training focused on SOGI information, or access SOGI data resources, we’re here to help! Contact us at info@californialgbtqhealth.org. 

Additionally, if you have any questions about the Inclusive Words, Inclusive Care Research study, or other questions about LGBTQ+ research, please contact our program evaluator Shannon Kozlovich at shannon@justkozs.com.

The California Dialog on Cancer is collaborating with national and state registries to include SOGI data. A recent survey found that 40% of California Cancer Care clinics don't collect SOGI data, and those that do, rarely incorporate it into patient records. This underscores the need for LGBTQ+-competent information technology (IT) and health data professionals who are LGBTQ+ competent to ensure the proper implementation of SOGI data collection among these vital services. This is particularly concerning in Cancer Care settings within California’s more rural and Southern regions, where BIPOC LBTQ people more often live within unaccepting communities with fewer LGBTQ+ resources than their peers who reside in Los Angeles or San Francisco. While the lack of SOGI data collection is particularly concerning within Cancer Care Clinics, it is a widespread issue among most medical and mental health providers.

Cancer rates and stages of diagnosis are monitored in California and federally through state and federally-funded Cancer Registry systems. These systems do not include the data options to collect or track cancer cases by SOGI identities, because cancer registries do not have access to this data due to a lack of SOGI data collection in medical care. Most rely on data collected from local cancer care providers, like Cedars-Sinai Medical Centers, and LGBTQ+ targeted surveys which all indicate that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to receive a late-stage cancer diagnosis than their heterosexual/cisgender peers. This directly correlates to the mistrust of medical providers among LGBTQ+ people, a direct result of discrimination, bias, and microaggressions often faced at medical visits.