Advancing Equity through Robust Sexual and Gender Minority
Representation through Data Collection
2022 was a critical
year in advancing data collection for sexual and gender minority populations.
In March, the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM)
published their consensus report, Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual
Orientation, funded and requested by the National Institutes of Health. Only
three months later, President Biden issued Executive Order "Advancing Equality
for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals"
(EO 14075) recognizing that advancing equity and full inclusion requires
improvements in data collection and evidence use. The EO called for three major
federal initiatives to help drive and shape the advancing data collection; a
Federal Evidence Agenda on LGBTQI+ Equity, federal agency SOGI Data Action
Plans, and Best Practices for the Collection of SOGI Data for Federal
Statistical Surveys published from the Office of the Chief Statistician of the
United States. While not all advances on collecting sexual orientation, gender
identity, and sex characteristic data is happening in the federal realm, the
work of many federal agencies like Census Bureau, Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, and the National Institutes for Health has significant
impact on advancing and directing work in other spheres.
Christina N. Dragon (she|her) serves as
the Measurement and Data Lead in the NIH Sexual and Gender Minority Research
Office and part time supporting the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for
Health as the SOGI Data Implementation Specialist. Previously she served as the
Sexual and Gender Minority Data Lead in Medicare’s Office of Minority Health
and as the data analyst for the Health People 2020 LGBT Health topic area at
the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC. She serves on the Sexual
Orientation, Gender Identity, and Sex Characteristics Subcommittee of the
Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) and in 2022 led the
subgroup on SOGI data for administrative forms for the interagency working
group on the Federal Evidence Agenda on LGBTQI+ Equity, published in January
2023. Besides SGM data Christina also worked on two public health emergencies,
the Ebola Response 2015 with the CDC and the COVID-19 pandemic response
(2020-2021) while working to protect worker safety and health with
OSHA. Christina holds a Masters’ Degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health, and a double major from Smith College in Neuroscience
and Woman and Gender Studies. Outside of work, Christina rows with the LGBTQ
rowing team, the DC Strokes, trains for the next marathon, and gardens.