“Sexual minorities — particularly lesbians and bisexual women –” are disproportionately incarcerated in the U.S., according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health. The findings, which looked at data from the National Inmate Survey (2011-2012), also found lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are at an increased risk for sexual assault and more likely to receive certain types of punishment.
“‘Sexual minority inmates have very different experiences behind bars … but we haven’t ever had really solid data to back it up,’ Lara Stemple, one of the study’s authors and the director of the Health and Human Rights Law Project at UCLA, told NBC Out.”