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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Why Are Lesbians Hazardous Drinkers? Feds Spend 2.7M To Find Out

This country is on the financial brink, and the government is wasting money on research studies like: how to improve the taste of beef jerky, or why lesbians are vulnerable to hazardous drinking?
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has handed over $2.7 million for the latter.

The University of Illinois has received grants since 2009 for its project, "Cumulative Stress and Hazardous Drinking in a Community of Adult Lesbians," which aims to develop “culturally sensitive” strategies to prevent lesbians from being drunks.

“Studies using both probability and nonprobability samples provide ample evidence of lesbians' vulnerability to hazardous drinking,” the grant’s description reads. “However, very little is known about the factors that increase lesbians' risk for hazardous drinking.”

“We propose to build on and extend our study of sexual identity and drinking… to model effects of cumulative stress on hazardous drinking among lesbians.”

The researchers theorize that lesbians report higher rates of traumatic events, making them more likely to engage in hazardous drinking, which has been defined by NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as “more than 7 drinks per week or more than 3 drinks per occasion for women.”

Furthermore, the problem may be worse for “lesbians of color,” the researchers say.

The grant states that there are “chronic stressors unique to sexual minorities, creating cumulative stress that may be compounded in lesbians of color.”

The study is being led by Tonda Hughes, professor at the Department of Health Systems Science at the University of Illinois, an “internationally recognized expert in the area of alcohol use among lesbians,” according to the University.

Why?!

Thank you Feds for wasting taxpayer money.

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