Vanderbilt University researchers are using a $400,000 grant to study how laws connected to LGBT people affect them and communities across the country.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, which was announced in a December statement from the university, is enough to fund two years of work by a team of experts in economics and health. Vanderbilt economics professor Christopher “Kitt” Carpenter, the lead researcher for the project, said it could help beef up the data surrounding the related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, which has not been extensively studied in the past.

Carpenter will work alongside medicine, health and society professor Tara McKay, health policy professor Gilbert Gonzales, and anesthesiology professor Jesse Ehrenfeld, who is director of the Program in LGBTI Health at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

According to the university, the group will work to analyze the impact of a wide range of state and local laws, including laws related to marriage equality, transgender rights, laws that permit businesses to refuse service to LGBT individuals on religious grounds and employment nondiscrimination laws.

Carpenter said in the statement that the research was especially important "given the large and growing body of evidence that sexual minorities have worse health outcomes and access to health care than similarly situated heterosexuals.”

Carpenter has previously published research on the health effects of policies such as cigarette taxes and drunken-driving laws, as well as LGBT-related health and economic issues, according to the university.

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