Lesbian Health Fund - Recent Grantees
The Lesbian Health Fund
2025 Grant Recipients
We are excited to unveil the recipients of the Lesbian Health Fund 2025 grant cycle! These exceptional researchers are committed to addressing the health disparities that persist within our community, and we are proud to support their critical work.
Since our founding in 1992, LHF has funded 137 research projects, awarding over $1.2 million in grants. These grants serve as vital catalysts for larger, multi-million dollar studies. Today, LHF stands as the only research fund solely focused on advancing the understanding of the unique health needs of LGBTQ+ women and girls. The Lesbian Health Fund operates as a program under GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality.
You can read more about this year's grantees in our full press release.
“The landscape of LGBTQ+ health research is at a pivotal moment. Years of neglect—and now active rollback—have created a crisis that threatens both current knowledge and future innovation. The Lesbian Health Fund is proud to step in to fill some of those gaps, making strategic investments to preserve essential research and drive new discoveries, but much more is needed. This is about survival, but it’s also about progress.”
- Beth Oller, MD, FAAFP
GLMA’s VP of Membership & Development and LHF Committee Member
Lesbian Health Fund 2025 Grantees
Accepted Proposal:
Navigating Gender-Affirming Care: Barriers and Protective Factors for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Individuals Traveling for Out-of-State Care in the Midwest
Rylee Beltran, BA, MPH
Clinical Research Coordinator at Planned Parenthood North Central States
Rylee Beltran, MPH (She/her) is a Clinical Research Coordinator at Planned Parenthood North Central States. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Grinnell College where she graduated in 2022 and an MPH in Community and Behavioral Health from the University of Iowa awarded in 2023. Her research centers reproductive justice, the ongoing impact of embedded oppressive systems on people’s bodies, and what research can do to alleviate the harms of historical exclusion and neglect of people with marginalized identities. She aspires to continue contributing to sexual and reproductive health research that centers the people at the margins of society through development of innovative and community grounded projects that enrich the scientific literature, repairs trust between community members and research/medical institutions, and provides practical policy implications to positively change the systems in which we live.
What will this funding mean for LGBTQ+ women and girls?
"This funding provides an important opportunity to collect and share the stories of community members who are experiencing extreme harm and bodily politicization under the current administration. I see this as an opportunity to ensure that this moment in time is not lost, and we have sound scientific backing to ensure that it is never repeated. Additionally, I am an early career scientist and receiving funding for this project will act as a catalyst for my future professional endeavors." - Rylee Beltran, BA, MPH
Asha Hassan, BA, PhD, MPH
Clinical Research Coordinator at Planned Parenthood North Central States
Dr. Asha Hassan (she/her) is director of health services research at Planned Parenthood North Central States and an assistant Professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She received a BA in Gender and Women's Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also has an MPH in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology and a PhD in Health Services Research Policy and Administration, both from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Her research focuses on conceptualizing the relationship between structural oppression and reproductive health access decision-making, and outcomes.
What will this funding mean for LGBTQ+ women and girls?
“This funding supports my commitment to reproductive justice by enabling research that centers the voices and experiences of trans patients navigating hostile legal and medical landscapes. Personally, it affirms my dedication to amplifying the stories that are too often ignored. Professionally, it strengthens my goal of building an inclusive evidence base that drives equitable, affirming policy and care models.” - Asha Hassan, BA, PhD, MPH
Accepted Proposal:
eSense TRANScend: A Pilot Trial of an Adapted Mindfulness-Based Online Sexual Wellbeing Intervention for Transgender Women
Katherine Kabel, MA (she/her)
Doctoral student in clinical psychology at Boston University
Katherine Kabel (she/her) is a third-year doctoral student in clinical psychology at Boston University. She works in the Sexual, Reproductive, and Mental Health Disparities Program under the mentorship of Dr. Amelia Stanton. Her research interests include developing and adapting evidence-based treatments for sexual difficulties, anxiety, and mood disorders through an intersectional framework to serve sexual and gender minority individuals. Through community-based research, she aims to increase access to care and mitigate health disparities among minoritized populations.
What will this funding mean for LGBTQ+ women and girls?
“Trans women are under attack in the current political climate, and now more than ever, they deserve access to affirming, evidence-based care. Funding from the LHF is a powerful opportunity to support the trans community by testing eSense TRANScend, a sexual wellbeing intervention that was co-adapted with trans women. On a personal level, as a graduate student, the future of my work in LGBTQ+ research has felt increasingly uncertain amid devastating funding cuts. This pilot trial will form the foundation of my dissertation and allow me to continue this deeply meaningful line of research. More than anything, this funding gives me hope. It signals that organizations like GLMA are committed to uplifting research that centers LGBTQ+ lives. Wellbeing is not only the absence of suffering; it is the presence of joy, pleasure, and agency. I am extremely grateful to engage in work that promotes wellbeing for a community that urgently needs it.” - Katherine Kabel, MA
Accepted Proposal:
Assessing Cardiovascular Health in Sexual Minority Participants of the BU Black Women’s Health Study
Carl Streed, Jr MD, MPH, FACP, FAHA (he/him)
Associate Professor of Medicine in the Section of General Internal Medicine at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and the Research Director for the GenderCare Center at Boston Medical Center
Carl Streed, Jr. (he/him) MD, MPH, FACP, FAHA is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Section of General Internal Medicine at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and the Research Director for the GenderCare Center at Boston Medical Center. As the Research Director for the GenderCare Center at BMC he collaborates with researchers, clinicians, and communities to assess and address the health and well-being of transgender and gender diverse communities. To achieve equity in healthcare access, outcomes, and community well-being, Dr. Streed actively incorporates principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility into his work as a clinician-investigator. As such, his personal and professional pursuit for a more equitable and inclusive society is focused on elevating voices often ignored and redistributing power. His clinical, training, advocacy, and research initiatives regarding the health and well-being of marginalized persons, particularly sexual and gender minority populations (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [LGBTQ] persons), have been used to influence and inform institutional, state, and federal policy as well as clinical care, academic research, and scholarship. Nationally, Dr. Streed has chaired the American Medical Association Advisory Committee on LGBTQ Issues, served on the board of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality, is on the Faculty Advisory Board of the Medical Student Pride Alliance, and currently serves as the President of the US Professional Association for Transgender Health. Dr. Streed’s efforts to improve the health and well-being of sexual and gender minority persons and communities have earned him several awards, notably from the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University Alumni Associations, the American Medical Association Foundation (twice), the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, as well as recognition from the Obama White House.
What will this funding mean for LGBTQ+ women and girls?
“With the support of LHF and GLMA, we will be able to explore overlooked populations and describe the unique experience of sexual minority Black women in one of the largest and oldest studies of Black women's health. In the current political moment, support for LGBTQ+ health is critical to assess and address the well-being of lesbian and bisexual women.” - Carl Streed, Jr MD, MPH, FACP, FAHA
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