Introduction

This book set out to bring together a range of international contributions on social work's contribution to tackling lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) health inequalities and looking back over the chapters it is useful to summarise some of the key themes and issues that characterise and integrate the various contributions. These will be considered in the light of the overall aims and purpose of the book, recognising the extent to which these have been met and the inevitable limitations as well as the overall significance of the material. Pivotal to this conclusion is also the need to balance reflection on what has been written, with some thoughts for the future, acknowledging that this text is a snapshot at one point of a journey and that there is a long road ahead. The implications for future theory, practice, education and research will also be considered within an approach that does not rest on a simple linear trajectory but recognises the contradictory and dynamic nature of progress towards human rights and social justice for LGBT people.

LGBT health inequalities – looking back

A key contribution of social work to tackling inequalities rests in the importance of bearing witness to human rights abuses, injustice and resistance (Healy, 2001; Heinonen and Metteri, 2005; Gitterman and Germain, 2008/2013). The contents of the chapters in this book highlight some of the challenges affecting the health and wellbeing of LGBT people and the strengths and resilience that are demonstrated in the face of prejudice and inequality. In particular, a number of the chapters make a powerful contribution to making visible the invisible, challenging us to recognise the reality of oppression and prejudice experienced by LGBT people and the far-reaching consequences for health. The limited attention in the social work literature to certain aspects of LGBT experience is noted in relation to care-experienced young people in Northern Ireland (Carr and Pinkerton) and asylum seekers in England (Karban and Sirriyeh), and the absence of LGBT issues from social work in Italy is also explored by Nagy and Nothdurfter. From a Swedish perspective, Knutagård explores the hidden experiences of men who are raped by men, while the ways in which LGBT health inequalities in Canada are obscured by a ‘utopian veneer’ and fly ‘under the radar of formalised policy structures’ provides a context for Mulé's chapter.