Women in contact with the Sydney LGBTQ communities: Report of the SWASH Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Women's Survey 2014, 2016, 2018

Abstract

The SWASH survey is a comprehensive survey of important health issues relevant to lesbian, bisexual, queer (LBQ) and other non-heterosexual identifying women engaged with Sydney's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities. The survey covers sexual health and wellbeing, violence, mental health, tobacco use, illicit drug use, alcohol consumption, and cancer, STI and HIV screening. SWASH has run every two years since 1996, and since 2009 has been run by researchers at the University of Sydney in collaboration with ACON. The survey is regularly revised to reflect the needs of LGBTQ communities and knowledge deficits identified through research literature. Where possible, questions ore sourced from established notional surveys such as Australian Health Survey, National Drug Strategy Household Survey, Australian Study of Health and Relationships, and Australian Longitudinal Survey of Women Health. Australian epidemiological data on the health and wellbeing of LBQ women remains inconsistent. The inclusion of sexuality indicators in large epidemiological surveys remains patchy, and data is often reported only by sexuality (e.g. LGB people vs heterosexual people) and not by sexuality and gender (e.g. LBO women, GBQ men, heterosexual women, heterosexual women). In this context, SWASH provides a unique and important source of health-related information on Australian LBQ women and now, non-binary people. This report presents results from the three most recent iterations of the survey conducted at the Mardi Gras Fair Day and other community events and venues during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras seasons in 2014, 2016 and 2018. The report highlights several areas of particular concern (some of which have persisted over time), such as the need for mainstream preventative health interventions that ore inclusive of or targeted to this group.