DYKE OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — OCTOBER 1999 — 17 . lesbians and tllcoliol Ilse PSYCHE BY ESTHER ROTHBLUM o lesbians drink more alco- n hol than heterosexual women? In the not-too-dis- tant past, the lesbian bar was one of the only places where lesbians could go to meet other women. On the other hand, many lesbian bars have closed down, indicat- ing perhaps that lesbians are drinking less and have other places to socialize. “Some of the early studies suggested that up to one third of lesbians were serious alcohol abusers,” says Dr. Tonda Hughes of the Department of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “But often these researchers collect- ed their data from les- bians in bars. So it’s not surprising that this method found a large number of lesbians who were heavy drinkers. I think that that is why we have the belief that les- bians are at risk for alco- hol abuse.” Nevertheless, Dr. Hughes believes that les- bians drank more than I heterosexual women in Suiaquam among lesbians now is partly due to changes in drinking in the whole population, to more health consciousness, and to the AIDS crisis, which has alerted us to the risks of alcohol and drug use,” she says. She also felt that lesbians used to drink more during the coming out process, in order to deal with social anxiety and stigma involved in meeting other women and coming to terms with being a lesbian. In a study conducted in Chicago, New York City, and Minneapolis/St. Paul in the mid- 1980s, lesbians overall were no more likely to report alcohol- related problems than were het- erosexual women. Only lesbians in the 50-60 year old age range reported more alcohol problems than did their heterosexual coun- terparts. — Dr. Hughes has conducted series of studies with lesbians and heterosexual women that focus on various mental health factors, including alcohol use and abuse. Her results indicate that lesbians these days are no more likely to drink heavily than are heterosex- ual women. In fact, lesbians were more likely to report abstaining from alcohol altogether for the past year than were heterosexual drank alcohol at low levels. White lesbians, however, drank more than did African American or Latina lesbians. “Interestingly, there are more lesbians who report that they are in recovery, though,” she adds. Only two percent of heterosexual women had been in treatment for alcohol or in 12-step programs, compared with 17 percent of les- bians—a large difference. This may be the result of prior heavy drinking among lesbians. Or it may be that lesbians are more aware of substance use issues than are heterosexual women. One of the questions in the survey is “Have you ever wondered if you had a drinking problem?” Forty-seven percent of lesbians answered ‘yes’ to this item, compared with only 14 per- cent of the heterosexual women. This finding again hints at heavy alcohol use in the past on the part of lesbians. Finally, there was a trend for older lesbians to report more drinking, and these are the les- bians who were young adults dur- ing times when drinking was more part of lesbian communi- ties. Dr. Hughes is interested in exploring patterns of drinking across various age groups of les- bians. Specifically, she is inter- which alcohol played a large part in lesbian communities continue to drink heavily. She is also inter- ested in the question of how les- bians and their partners moderate each others drinking; research on heterosexuals shows that part- ners’ drinking is a major factor in how much people drink. All in all, we still know very little about all the factors that increase or decrease lesbians’ risk for alcohol abuse or alcohol- related problems. V Esther Rothblum is Professor of Psychology at the University of Vermont and editor of the Journal of Lesbian Studies. She can be reached at John Dewey Hall, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT or esther. rothblum @uvm.eaix. 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