scholarly journals Sexuality and the city: The geography of LGBT participation in the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Thompson ◽  
Stuart James Turnbull-Dugarte

The literature on LGBT participation is growing, but there is still little empirical analysis on the importance of urbanicity in shaping Queer activism. In this paper, we address this critical gap by examining how patterns of participation among LGBT Americans vary by geographic context. Using data from the 2020 Cooperative Election Study (CES) to explore how patterns of LGBT participation differ across the urban-rural interface, we find that individuals identifying as LGBT living in urban areas exhibit higher rates of participation than those living in rural areas, and that these results hold across multiple urban-rural classification schemes. Estimating a multilevel model that leverages local-level data on the density of the LGBT population, we also provide strong empirical validation of the theoretical effects of intragroup contact and mobilization on LGBT participation in large metro areas. When we limit our sample to respondents living in the 55 largest metro areas in the US but vary the metro-level percentage of LGBT individuals, we find that LGBT individuals living in metro areas with a higher percentage of LGBT individuals exhibit higher rates of participation relative to metro areas with a lower percentage of LGBT individuals. The results indicate that urban contexts foster Queer participation by engendering intragroup contact and mobilization among LGBT populations.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Thompson ◽  
Stuart James Turnbull-Dugarte

The literature on LGBT participation is growing, but there is still little empirical analysis on the importance of urbanicity in shaping Queer activism. In this paper, we address this critical gap by examining how patterns of participation among LGBT Americans vary by geographic context. Using data from the 2020 Cooperative Election Study (CES) to explore how patterns of LGBT participation differ across the urban-rural interface, we find that individuals identifying as LGBT living in urban areas exhibit higher rates of participation than those living in rural areas, and that these results hold across multiple urban-rural classification schemes. Estimating a multilevel model that leverages local-level data on the density of the LGBT population, we also provide strong empirical validation of the theoretical effects of intragroup contact and mobilization on LGBT participation in large metro areas. When we limit our sample to respondents living in the 55 largest metro areas in the US but vary the metro-level percentage of LGBT individuals, we find that LGBT individuals living in metro areas with a higher percentage of LGBT individuals exhibit higher rates of participation relative to metro areas with a lower percentage of LGBT individuals. The results indicate that urban contexts foster Queer participation by engendering intragroup contact and mobilization among LGBT populations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 417
Author(s):  
Lan Mu ◽  
Yusi Liu ◽  
Donglan Zhang ◽  
Yong Gao ◽  
Michelle Nuss ◽  
...  

Physician shortages are more pronounced in rural than in urban areas. The geography of medical school application and matriculation could provide insights into geographic differences in physician availability. Using data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), we conducted geospatial analyses, and developed origin–destination (O–D) trajectories and conceptual graphs to understand the root cause of rural physician shortages. Geographic disparities exist at a significant level in medical school applications in the US. The total number of medical school applications increased by 38% from 2001 to 2015, but the number had decreased by 2% in completely rural counties. Most counties with no medical school applicants were in rural areas (88%). Rurality had a significant negative association with the application rate and explained 15.3% of the variation at the county level. The number of medical school applications in a county was disproportional to the population by rurality. Applicants from completely rural counties (2% of the US population) represented less than 1% of the total medical school applications. Our results can inform recruitment strategies for new medical school students, elucidate location decisions of new medical schools, provide recommendations to close the rural–urban gap in medical school applications, and reduce physician shortages in rural areas.


2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Buchanan ◽  
Randolph Schiffer ◽  
Alexa Stuifbergen ◽  
Li Zhu ◽  
Suojin Wang ◽  
...  

This study compares demographic and disease-related characteristics of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) living in urban and rural areas. The data analyzed for this study were collected from a survey of 1518 people with MS living throughout the United States from October 2004 through January 2005. We found significant urban-rural differences in various MS characteristics, including type of MS. A significantly larger proportion of people with MS in remote rural areas than their urban counterparts responded that they had primary progressive MS. People with MS in rural areas were significantly more likely than those in urban areas to report that MS symptoms interfered with their independence. A significantly larger proportion of people with MS in remote rural areas than in urban areas were not receiving disease-modifying medications. Our results suggest that MS disease expression varies across urban-rural gradients. Although the findings are not definitive, we hope that other investigative groups will build on these results and work toward confirming and understanding them.


2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadiya S. Khan ◽  
Amy E. Krefman ◽  
Megan E. McCabe ◽  
Lucia C. Petito ◽  
Xiaoyun Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Geographic heterogeneity in COVID-19 outcomes in the United States is well-documented and has been linked with factors at the county level, including sociodemographic and health factors. Whether an integrated measure of place-based risk can classify counties at high risk for COVID-19 outcomes is not known. Methods We conducted an ecological nationwide analysis of 2,701 US counties from 1/21/20 to 2/17/21. County-level characteristics across multiple domains, including demographic, socioeconomic, healthcare access, physical environment, and health factor prevalence were harmonized and linked from a variety of sources. We performed latent class analysis to identify distinct groups of counties based on multiple sociodemographic, health, and environmental domains and examined the association with COVID-19 cases and deaths per 100,000 population. Results Analysis of 25.9 million COVID-19 cases and 481,238 COVID-19 deaths revealed large between-county differences with widespread geographic dispersion, with the gap in cumulative cases and death rates between counties in the 90th and 10th percentile of 6,581 and 291 per 100,000, respectively. Counties from rural areas tended to cluster together compared with urban areas and were further stratified by social determinants of health factors that reflected high and low social vulnerability. Highest rates of cumulative COVID-19 cases (9,557 [2,520]) and deaths (210 [97]) per 100,000 occurred in the cluster comprised of rural disadvantaged counties. Conclusions County-level COVID-19 cases and deaths had substantial disparities with heterogeneous geographic spread across the US. The approach to county-level risk characterization used in this study has the potential to provide novel insights into communicable disease patterns and disparities at the local level.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0246548
Author(s):  
Qian Huang ◽  
Sarah Jackson ◽  
Sahar Derakhshan ◽  
Logan Lee ◽  
Erika Pham ◽  
...  

As the COVID-19 pandemic moved beyond the initial heavily impacted and urbanized Northeast region of the United States, hotspots of cases in other urban areas ensued across the country in early 2020. In South Carolina, the spatial and temporal patterns were different, initially concentrating in small towns within metro counties, then diffusing to centralized urban areas and rural areas. When mitigation restrictions were relaxed, hotspots reappeared in the major cities. This paper examines the county-scale spatial and temporal patterns of confirmed cases of COVID-19 for South Carolina from March 1st—September 5th, 2020. We first describe the initial diffusion of the new confirmed cases per week across the state, which remained under 2,000 cases until Memorial Day weekend (epi week 23) then dramatically increased, peaking in mid-July (epi week 29), and slowly declining thereafter. Second, we found significant differences in cases and deaths between urban and rural counties, partially related to the timing of the number of confirmed cases and deaths and the implementation of state and local mitigations. Third, we found that the case rates and mortality rates positively correlated with pre-existing social vulnerability. There was also a negative correlation between mortality rates and county resilience patterns, as expected, suggesting that counties with higher levels of inherent resilience had fewer deaths per 100,000 population.


Author(s):  
Dante J. Scala ◽  
Kenneth M. Johnson

This article documents the diversity of political attitudes and voting patterns along the urban-rural continuum of the United States. We find that America’s rural and urban interface, in terms of political attitudes and voting patterns, is just beyond the outer edges of large urban areas and through the suburban counties of smaller metropolitan areas. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton performed well in densely populated areas on the urban side of the interface, but they faced increasingly difficult political climates and sharply diminished voter support on the rural side of the interface. The reduction in support for Clinton in 2016 in rural areas was particularly pronounced. Even after controlling for demographic, social, and economic factors (including geographic region, education, income, age, race, and religious affiliation) in a spatial regression, we find that a county’s position in the urban-rural continuum remained statistically significant in the estimation of voting patterns in presidential elections.


Author(s):  
Kalaichelvi Sivaraman ◽  
Rengasamy Stalin

This research paper is the part of Research Project entitled “Impact of Elected Women Representatives in the Life and Livelihood of the Women in Rural Areas: With Special Reference to Tiruvannamalai District, Tamil Nadu” funded by University of Madras under UGC-UPE Scheme.The 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution of India were made by the government to strengthen the position of women and to create a local-level legal foundation for direct democracy for women in both rural and urban areas. The representation for women in local bodies through reservation policies amendment in Constitution of India has stimulated the political participation of women in rural areas. However, when it’s comes to the argument of whether the women reservation in Panchayati Raj helps or benefits to the life and livelihood development of women as a group? The answer is hypothetical because the studies related to the impact of women representatives of Panchayati Raj in the life and livelihood development of women was very less. Therefore, to fill the gap in existing literature, the present study was conducted among the rural women of Tiruvannamalai district to assess the impact of elected women representatives in the physical and financial and business development of the women in rural areas. The findings revealed that during the last five years because of the women representation in their village Panjayati Raj, the Physical Asset of the rural women were increased or developed moderately (55.8%) and Highly (23.4%) and the Financial and Business Asset of the rural women were increased or developed moderately (60.4%) and Highly (18.7%).


2021 ◽  
pp. 001955612110016
Author(s):  
Anurima Mukherjee Basu ◽  
Rutool Sharma

Current urbanisation trends in India show a quantum jump in number of ‘census towns’, which are not statutorily declared as urban areas, but have acquired all characteristics of urban settlements. Sizeable number of such census towns are not located near any Class 1 city. Lack of proper and timely planning has led to unplanned growth of these settlements. This article is based on a review of planning legislations, institutional framework and planning process of four states in India. The present article analyses the scope and limitations of the planning process adopted in the rapidly urbanising rural areas of these states. The findings reveal that states are still following a conventional approach to planning that treats ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ as separate categories and highlights the need for adopting an integrated territorial approach to planning of settlements.


The Forum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Johnson ◽  
Dante J. Scala

Abstract This study of the 2018 congressional midterms demonstrates how voting patterns and political attitudes vary across a spectrum of urban and rural areas in the United States. Rural America is no more a monolith than is urban America. The rural-urban gradient is better represented by a continuum than a dichotomy. This is evident in the voting results in 2018, just as it was in 2016. We found that the political tipping point lies beyond major metropolitan areas, in the suburban counties of smaller metropolitan areas. Democrats enjoyed even greater success in densely populated urban areas in 2018 than in 2016. Residents of these urban areas display distinctive and consistent social and political attitudes across a range of scales. At the other end of the continuum in remote rural areas, Republican candidates continued to command voter support despite the challenging national political environment. Voters in these rural regions expressed social and political attitudes diametrically opposed to their counterparts in large urban cores.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. e042762
Author(s):  
Shuai Yuan ◽  
Shao-Hua Xie

ObjectiveThe substantial differences in socioeconomic and lifestyle exposures between urban and rural areas in China may lead to urban–rural disparity in cancer risk. This study aimed to assess the urban–rural disparity in cancer incidence in China.MethodsUsing data from 36 regional cancer registries in China in 2008–2012, we compared the age-standardised incidence rates of cancer by sex and anatomic site between rural and urban areas. We calculated the rate difference and rate ratio comparing rates in rural versus urban areas by sex and cancer type.ResultsThe incidence rate of all cancers in women was slightly lower in rural areas than in urban areas, but the total cancer rate in men was higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The incidence rates in women were higher in rural areas than in urban areas for cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, and liver and biliary passages, but lower for cancers of thyroid and breast. Men residing in rural areas had higher incidence rates for cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, and liver and biliary passages, but lower rates for prostate cancer, lip, oral cavity and pharynx cancer, and colorectal cancer.ConclusionsOur findings suggest substantial urban–rural disparity in cancer incidence in China, which varies across cancer types and the sexes. Cancer prevention strategies should be tailored for common cancers in rural and urban areas.


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