Tara McKay is a sociologist and assistant professor of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. Before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt, Dr. McKay was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her research examines the effects of health policy for marginalized individuals and communities, with a strong focus on LGBT people, families, and communities in the US and African contexts.
Areas of Expertise:
LGBT health, US health policy, global health as development, social movement strategies in criminalized contexts, HIV
Countries of Expertise:
US, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda
Email: tara dot mckay at vanderbilt dot edu
August 2016
New in a Special Issue of Global Public Health on MSM
January 2017
Health insurance matters for American communities.
Beyond Health Effects? Examining the Social Consequences of Community Levels of Uninsurance Pre-ACA
Tara McKay and Stefan Timmermans.
Policy Brief available here.
July 2015
Dr. McKay, in collaboration with Claude Fischer at the University of California, Berkeley, receives three-year grant from National Institute of Aging to study LGBT social networks and health.
March 2018
Special Issue of Global Public Health now available as edited volume!
Rethinking MSM, Trans* and other Categories in HIV Prevention
Amaya G. Perez-Brumer, Richard Parker, Peter Aggleton (eds)
December 2016
New in a Special Issue of Qualitative Sociology
on gender, sexuality and globalization:
Ready Rhetorics: Political Homophobia and Activist Discourses in Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda
Tara McKay and Nicole Angotti
February 2017
New in a Special Issue of Critical African Studies
on LGBT rights and organizing in African contexts
Pursuing Social Justice through Public Health: Gender and Sexual Diversity Activism in Malawi
Ashley Currier and Tara McKay
January 2019
New in a Special Issue of Sociology of Development
on the sociology of global health
Lgbt Visibility and Anti-Gay Backlash: Unintended Consequences of Responses to HIV/AIDS in Malawi and Senegal
Nicole Angotti, Tara McKay, Rachel Sullivan Robinson
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Featured Work
August 2019
Dr. McKay, in collaboration with VU faculty Carpenter, Gaydosh, and Gonzales, receives five-year R01 grant from National Institute of Aging to study LGBT social networks and health in the US South.
June 2017
New in Health Equity
What an Emerging Trump Administration Means for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health
Gilbert Gonzales and Tara McKay
July 2018
New NBER Working Paper
Effects of Access to Legal Same-Sex Marriage on Marriage and Health: Evidence from BRFSS
Christopher Carpenter, Sam Eppink, Gilbert Gonzales, Tara McKay
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June 2017
New in Health Affairs Blog
Two Things Health Researchers And Allies Can Do Right Now
Tara McKay and Gilbert Gonzales