Individuals that are considered sexual minority continue facing stigma and discrimination by healthcare professionals and society alike. Often due to mistrust, people belonging to sexual minority communities have low cancer screening. In this study, we explored the relationship between sexual minority, history of cancer, and overall mortality to gain improved understanding of health equity. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2018) individuals aged 20-59 were used with mortality follow-up through through December 31, 2019. Multiple cox regression models were used to compare history of cancer between sexual minority (gay/lesbian, bisexual) and heterosexual participants, adjusted for predetermined covariates. We found that individuals that people with a history of cancer (15.9%) were slightly higher to be sexual minority than those without cancer (15.8%). For overall mortality, the crude hazard ratio (HR) for cancer was 2.41 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.84-3.14 p< 0.01). The adjusted HR was elevated, 4.46 (CI 2.62-7.59, p< 0.001), among individuals with history of cancer who were sexual minorities but close to 1.0 (1.44 CI 1.01-2.05, p< 05) among individuals with cancer who were not sexual minorities, after adjusting for medical (obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease) and demographic variables (age, gender, ethnicity, education level, and poverty).The main finding in this research was that people with cancer and sexual minority individuals were 4 times more likely to experience mortality as individuals without cancer and belonging to the sexual minority community. This demonstrates the need to improve cancer screening by addressing stigma related to sexual minority status.