Departmental Affiliations
Harry Barbee, PhD ’20, is an interdisciplinary social scientist who aims to identify, understand, and improve health and aging outcomes among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer populations.
Research Interests
LGBTQ Populations; Minority Stress; Aging and the Life Course; Gender and Sexuality; Medical Sociology; Gender Affirming Health Care; Public Policy
Experiences & Accomplishments
Dr. Barbee (they/them) uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine how social locations — especially gender and sexuality — influence people’s experiences of health and aging. They are particularly interested in detecting, understanding, and reducing health disparities among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations by studying the population's exposures to stressful life events, like discrimination, harassment, and violence. Dr. Barbee is also interested in examining interventions that can improve health and aging outcomes among LGBTQ populations.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Barbee's research addresses a range of topics that are important to medical sociologists, gerontologists, gender and sexualities scholars, public health experts, and policy makers. For instance, they have developed innovative perspectives on timely issues that have implications for improving LGBTQ health and aging, including experiences of victimization, access to LGBTQ affirming health care, workplace stress, worries about prospective health, the medicalization of human behavior, and the emotional burdens of living in a society that assumes a gender binary.
Select Publications
List of select publications:
Barbee H, McKay T. Do supportive work environments matter for minority aging? Work stress and subjective cognitive impairment among middle-age and older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer adults. Acta Psychologica. 2023;237:103949. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103949
Barbee H, Deal C, Gonzales G. Anti-Transgender Legislation—A Public Health Concern for Transgender Youth. JAMA Pediatrics. 2022;176(2):125-126. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.4483
Barbee H. Harnessing progress: Gender, sexuality, and positive self-perceptions of aging in midlife. Journal of Aging Studies. 2022;61:101008. doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2022.101008
Barbee H, Schrock D. Un/gendering Social Selves: How Nonbinary People Navigate and Experience a Binarily Gendered World. Sociological Forum. 2019;34(3):572-593. doi:10.1111/socf.12517
McKay T, Tran NM, Barbee H, Min JK. Association of Affirming Care with Chronic Disease and Preventive Care Outcomes among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Older Adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2023;64(3):305-314. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2022.09.025