Waging Battles

The Stonewall Warriors march in the Boston Pride Parade to call much-needed attention to the issue of poverty, particularly as it affects queer people of color.Credit: Marilyn Humphries.

To eliminate poverty in the LGBTQ community a comprehensive strategy is needed.

By Jose Abrigo

Since coming out as transgender, Caitlyn Jenner has come under fire numerous times by LGBTQ activists for her political views. Jenner’s stance on social welfare and her continuing support of Ted Cruz stand in stark contrast to the crushing poverty and discrimination faced by the majority of the trans community. While Jenner has contributed immensely to transgender visibility, her position of privilege and the views she espouses present a dangerous image that masks the reality for a large segment of the LGBTQ community, particularly queer and gender-nonconforming people of color. Many LGBTQ people live in poverty. It is time that they become more visible, and that their issues receive the same national attention as marriage equality.

A pervasive stereotype of the gay community is that it is an affluent group. A recent study by The Williams Institute reveals that most people perceive the LGBTQ community as gay, young, childless, white men. This false stereotype is perpetuated and bolstered by and through media images. Jenner is the latest in a long line of highly visible queer celebrities who shape the national conversation and focus of LGBTQ issues. Tim Cook of Apple, Chris Hughes of Facebook, Dustin Lance Black, Ellen DeGeneres, and Neil Patrick Harris are some of the most visible gay and lesbian figures in the media. Unfortunately, current conversations ignore a crucial issue affecting our community: because of discrimination, a large percentage of our community lives in or near poverty. In order to address the issues surrounding LGBTQ poverty our focus needs to shift.

In addition to all the factors that affect the entire population (most notably, racism and sexism), LGBTQ people also have to contend with the economic impacts of homophobia and transphobia

Poverty in the United States

Poverty in the United States is a systemic issue caused by a confluence of factors. While the exact roots of poverty are debatable, it is largely agreed that a major cause is the desire of those with privilege to preserve power and wealth for themselves. This can manifest with exclusionary actions and discrimination against disenfranchised groups. The more different someone is from those with power and privilege, the more likely they are to be impoverished. In addition to all the factors that affect the entire population (most notably, racism and sexism), LGBTQ people also have to contend with the economic impacts of homophobia and transphobia.

LGBTQ Poverty: The Numbers

A recent study by The Williams Institute revealed that the LGBTQ community is disproportionately impacted by poverty. Poverty rates nationwide are higher for LGB adults; twenty percent of LGB singles have incomes of less than $12,000 per year compared to 17 percent of heterosexual singles. The statistics are worse for transgender individuals, who are four times more likely than the national average to have incomes under $10,000.

While 7.6 percent of female same-sex couples live in poverty compared to 5.7 percent of heterosexual couples, only 4.3 percent of male same-sex couples do. This is likely due to the intersectional discrimination based on both gender and sexual orientation. The numbers are worse for LGBTQ families with children. Single LGBTQ adults with children are three times more likely, and married LGBTQ adults with children two times more likely, to have incomes near the poverty lines as their non-LGBTQ peers.

LGBTQ people of color, who contend with the intersectional oppressions of racism and homophobia, are in the gravest position. Black people in same-sex relationships have poverty rates that are at least double those for Blacks in heterosexual marriages. More alarming still, they are about three times more likely to be poor than their White counterparts.

Even in progressive cities like Boston and New York City, which have large LGBTQ populations, the numbers are startling. A recent study by Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) found that 62 percent of low-income LGBT New Yorkers had difficulty paying for a basic need in the past year. In Boston, the National LGBTQ Task Force estimated that 150-300 LGBT youth enter emergency homeless shelters every year.

The Causes of LGBTQ Poverty

The Movement Advancement Project has identified three key areas where being LGBTQ puts one at greater risk of poverty: lack of protection from discrimination, refusal to legally recognize LGBTQ families, and failure to protect LGBTQ students.

Discrimination

Lack of anti-discrimination laws results in LGBTQ people having lower incomes and higher costs for basic needs. In more than half the states there is no form of protection for employment discrimination. As a result, LGB adults are 40 percent more likely to be unemployed than heterosexual adults; on average, LGBTQ people have less income than their heterosexual counterparts. Even in states where these protections exist, people still suffer discrimination. Twenty-six percent of trans participants in the LSNYC study experienced employment issues in the past year. Other studies have found that 46 percent of trans individuals in New York City have either been denied a promotion or were fired because of their gender identity.

Basic healthcare is also discriminatory and much more costly for LGBTQ individuals. A recent study by Lambda Legal found that some healthcare professionals refused physical contact, or employed excessive precautions, when treating LGBTQ individuals, used harsh or abusive language, blamed their patients for their health status, or outright denied treatment. In the LSNYC survey, one participant stated, “The most discrimination I face is in emergency rooms and hospitals; people will leave me alone for hours, misgender me, ask inappropriate questions that are not related to why I am there, and have lots and lots of students come through to see the freak show.”

Further, if an LGBTQ individual lives in a state lacking fair housing laws, rent is much more expensive. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development found, moreover, that homeowners are much more likely to respond favorably to heterosexual couples than homosexual couples. Same-sex couples applying for mortgages are denied at higher rates than heterosexual couples, and transgender individuals experience more difficulty in obtaining required identification documents for basic financial transactions. As a result, securing housing for LGBTQ individuals is more challenging and costly.

Even in cases where individuals have secured housing, there can be unexpected costs. In a case that I litigated last year, my client’s partner moved in with him, which effectively outed them to the management company. Suddenly management stopped responding to requests for repairs, eventually resulting in the spread of black mold. When my client informed the landlord that he would be reporting the problem to the city, he was threatened with eviction for having an “illegal roommate” and was intimidated into silence. When he finally sought legal representation, even though all his issues were remedied, he was so tired and afraid of the harassment that he and his partner moved elsewhere. Most other LGBTQ individuals face this type of harassment alone.

Family Recognition

Even with the marriage equality ruling in 2015, many states still discriminate against families, while in others laws are rushing to catch up with the new status afforded LGBTQ individuals. LGBTQ families are still suffering from the effects of decades of inequality concerning taxes, access to partner’s health insurance, and social safety net assistance for families. LGBTQ seniors often do not benefit from marriage equality because their retirement planning, initiated decades in advance, was not affected by the ruling. As a result, LGBTQ seniors have higher poverty rates than seniors in heterosexual relationships.

School Safety

Because of discrimination and bullying, LGBTQ students tend to underperform in school, drop out at higher rates, and have difficulty accessing financial aid due to familial rejection. In the LSNYC report, a transgender student reported that he was prevented from registering for classes after he changed his name to reflect his gender identity. School officials told him that they would not acknowledge his identity as a male and, as a result, his education was delayed for four months. Another student reported changing his clothes four different times throughout the day just to feel comfortable at home, at school, and with his peers. As a result, LGBTQ students face substantially greater challenges obtaining higher education, leading to reduced eligibility for higher-paying jobs.

Members of City Life/Vida Urbana bring their organization's long-standing commitment to intersectional advocacy on economic justice issues, particularly as concerns housing, to Boston Pride. Credit: Marilyn Humphries.

The lack of these protections against discrimination results in the reduction of income earned by members of the LGBTQ community, which leaves them more vulnerable to the systemic barriers keeping low-income people in poverty.

We Are Not Done

Yet Marriage equality has been a great achievement for the LGBTQ community, both in terms of legal rights and symbolic recognition across the country. But there is much work yet to be done to fight discrimination and to alleviate the plight of poverty in our community. Currently, national discourse centers mainly on transgender issues. Caitlyn Jenner has launched the issue into the spotlight and activists are organizing around transphobic legislation, such as North Carolina’s recently enacted discriminatory bill that forces transgender individuals to use bathrooms according to the sex they were assigned at birth.

Advocates welcome this shift. Within the LGBTQ population, transgender people suffer the most brutal forms of discrimination and are one of the groups most likely to experience poverty. Most of the energy and resources, however, are funneled into changing laws. While the fight for equality continues, and society continues to evolve, resources must be allocated to help people in our community who are currently suffering as a result of systemic oppression. As our comrades in the Black community have demonstrated, eliminating overt discrimination does little to address the collateral consequences of insidious prejudice. Aid for victims of discrimination can take the form of a better social safety net (increasing welfare grants, expanding Medicaid, lowering the barriers to Social Security, etc.), more LGBTQ affirming homeless shelters, and increased funding to organizations serving the poor. The Volunteer Lawyers’ Project of the Boston Bar Association offers LGBTQ people living in poverty culturally affirming assistance with a variety of legal problems, most notably landlord/tenant and unemployment benefit cases. LGBTQ Bostonians can find aid appealing the denial of government benefits, particularly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability (SSD), and preventing evictions from the Justice Research Institute’s Health Law Institute. Additionally, Greater Boston Legal Services provides low-income people with assistance in many areas including public benefits, such as welfare and food stamps, housing, and immigration and asylum seeking.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of prejudice should not be viewed as isolated forces, but rather as synergistic factors of a single endemic system that forces people into poverty.

It is also important to keep in mind that battling different forms of discrimination piecemeal only alleviates the issue of poverty slightly. We must make a coordinated effort to combat all the factors that make an individual vulnerable to poverty. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of prejudice should not be viewed as isolated forces, but rather as synergistic factors of a single endemic system that forces people into poverty. To truly be an effective LGBTQ rights activist who advocates for social and economic equality, one must also fight all forms of discrimination. The fight continues. I look forward to standing with you on the front lines.

Jose Abrigo is Staff Attorney in the LGBTQ/HIV Advocacy Project in the Queens branch of Legal Services NYC, an organization dedicated to fighting poverty. To read the report on LGBTQ poverty and to learn more about the organization, please visit: www.legalservicesnyc.org.

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Timothy P. McCarthy

Boston City Councilor

District 5

mccarthy4boston.com

617-635-4210

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