Why Economic Justice Is Central to LGBT Rights

At the recent Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) international forum on economic rights, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates from around the world highlighted the urgent need to link economic justice and LGBT rights. As one representative of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission noted, the United States LGBT rights movement has focused largely on civil and political issues, including hate crime legislation, partnership benefits, gay marriage, and repeal of the shameful military policy "Don't Ask/Don't Tell." The link between economic justice and LGBT rights, however, in both the United States and abroad, has received considerably less attention.

In general, there is a dearth of data regarding poverty within the LGBT community. This must change so that organizations can design effective interventions to assist LGBT people who disproportionately suffer economic marginalization because of homophobia and transphobia.

The limited economic statistics we do have regarding how the LGBT community experiences economic marginalization are cause for alarm. In the United States, for instance, children in same-sex households experience rates of poverty double those of children in heterosexual ones. Transgender people in San Francisco have a 35 percent unemployment rate. Nearly 24 percent of lesbian and bisexual women live in poverty, compared with 19 percent of heterosexual women. I confronted equally disturbing economic realities during a research project my students and I conducted on employment discrimination against the transgender community in Lebanon.

The stories of economic exclusion we heard in Beirut were sobering. Common experiences included blatantly discriminatory hiring practices. "Aziza," a transgender woman from Algeria, found it impossible to find a job as a nurse in Beirut despite having a university degree and 16 years of work experience. Once employers realized she was transgender, they refused to hire her. When Aziza finally did secure employment as a home caregiver, her employer assigned her to long shifts and refused her days off, knowing she would have little choice but to accept this treatment because her employment options were so limited. Experiencing this sort of flagrant discrimination resulted in some transgender people stating they had stopped looking for work altogether.

Transgender individuals we interviewed who were able to secure employment faced levels of exploitation and harassment by employers and coworkers that often drove them from their jobs. When "Ramona" began transitioning from male to female, her boss immediately lowered her salary. When "Gloria" enlisted in the Lebanese military, the constant sexual harassment she endured as a transgender woman from supervisors and other enlistees was so unrelenting that she pretended to be suicidal in order to be discharged.

We also learned that transgender youth often experience abuse from teachers and classmates that can lead to early exits from school, making them less qualified and prepared to enter the job market. In addition, transgender individuals with disapproving families may be driven from their homes, losing their families' financial support and their place of residence, dramatically increasing their vulnerability to poverty.

Advocates at the conference from China, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, the Philippines, South Africa, the United States, and other parts of the world, made it clear that LGBT people in their countries also disproportionately experience economic discrimination, underemployment, and unemployment. They all agreed that there is a need for more research on how LGBT people experience poverty. Such data is essential in designing effective interventions for economic empowerment.

One such innovative intervention highlighted at the conference was the Coalition for Advancement of Lesbian Business in Africa (CALBiA), which was established in 2011 and seeks to economically empower African lesbians and transgender people by assisting them with start-up capital for small and medium businesses. Interventions such as the CALBiA model that seek to advance the financial independence and security of LGBT people are much needed. We cannot ignore the ways in which poverty and economic stigmatization disproportionately affect LGBT people, especially during these difficult times of global economic malaise and injustice.

 

Comments

[Thinking 4 Myself]

11:38 PM on 05/07/2012

"children in same-sex households experience rates of poverty double those of children in heterosexual ones"

That's quite an outrageous statistic
presumably these kids are adopted into these homes.
It sounds like there needs to be some increased screening

[F Young]

02:09 PM on 05/08/2012

"presumably these kids are adopted into these homes.
It sounds like there needs to be some increased screening"

If that is what you presume, then you would be wrong.

A lot of the children are from previous marriages to opposite-sex spouses. Others were born from lesbian couples using donated sperm.

Typically, those who were adopted were adopted after extensive screening that identified that the economic disadvantages were more than offset by the strong positive attributes of the couples. Research shows that the children of same-sex couples do at least as well, and often better than the children of opposite-sex couples.

[Thinking 4 Myself]

04:51 PM on 05/08/2012

". Research shows that the children of same-sex couples do at least as well, and often better than the children of opposite-sex couples"

I don't know about that. The only research I'm seeing says that poverty rates of of these children is much higher, even though many were the result of family planning
There is a serious problem there

[Bart Vincelette]

08:25 PM on 05/07/2012

This is an excellent & informed; article. I mean this: I am happy to detect an element of anger in the comments. In addition to everything else, it is essential that when needed, we raise hell with facts , truth, & reality. To essentially refer to an entire segment of humanity as disordered, inferior, & unworthy, & then insist it's done out of love, can only come from people with a kaleidoscope of chromosomes, & the attention span of a cocker spaniel being shown a card trick. The 'opposition' is simply using the oldest trick in the book; the 'book' having such gems as "suffer not a witch to live."(Perhaps WE should spend a period of time implementing the Bible literally, & begin hunting those WE recognize as sorcerers & witches......not to be confused with the wonderful folks who follow Wiccan.So, please stock up on Bic lighters..... :-).) Apart from several geographic locations & historic figures, there's only one statement in the ancient meanderings we call the Bible, that is infallible & cannot be argued with.It says, "Remember man that thou art dust & unto dust thou shall return, ....& not even stock boxes of Swiffers will save your butts,.) The last part was only recently discovered in caves located...oh, I forget where....

[FMgb]

08:23 PM on 05/07/2012

This article is a sophisticated look at the global struggle for LGBT rights. Many of the great movements for social justice internationally, whether it be racially or gender-specific, have utilized the economic inequality argument to bolster the overall push to address groups marginalized for falling outside of cultural/social/religious norms. I believe the moral argument - that LGBT rights are human rights - is of course a powerful one. However, as Professor Mgbako points out, countries have a disincentive to perpetuate creating misfortune and poverty for these groups, whose economic outcomes are tied to the success of the entire nation. This should be another tool in the argument against bigotry here in the US and abroad. This is perhaps a prescient look at how the LGBT movement will continue to develop in the years to come.

[racmd]

03:48 PM on 05/07/2012

s for the number of the LGBT groups who live below the poverty level in the streets. Perhaps you need to look at the 1.5 million homeless adolescents between 15 and 18, 500,000 of them are of the LGBT groups. Thery were kicked out because of who they are...loving parents who couldn't change them...just booted them. That numberr probably changes little over the last few years..and they have little hope of leaving the slums. From prostitution, drugs to HIV, they have a mountain to climb. They already have a few strikes against them..have you interviewed a street person for a job, ever? Try it...
We can do better..but we do not. We could give time to shelters to help these kids...we could give up a coffee from Starbuck's, a week's tithing to a shelter...one week a month for a year, one less martini, one less dinner, maybe even one less theatre ticket...We are sort of locked into what I experienced as a resident, "I did it and survived, so can you."
We are 20,000,000+ strong and we are NOT going away..and we will NOT be silence by ignorance.

[racmd]

03:42 PM on 05/07/2012

Something you missed is the financial changes of the First World countries that has allowed for the development of a movement we call, "gay rights". The right-wing says the movement is new, the GOP and the TP (not the one in my bathroom) wish we would go away.
The reality of all of this..if you think about it..we are NOT new to the scene. Do not give me the BS from a couple comments in the bible that I am a sinner..cause you need to read the rest of the book to find out how many of your are sinners. That aside...
In the founding days of this country..it was IMPERATIVE a man married had kids..and cared for his family...women married had children and did as they were told. There was a financial understanding of sons to extended family. Then..something fabulous happened...social security and retirement accounts. Voila...no more responsibility for the farm, the house, the extended family and then a huge war...WW II when people were in concentration camps..and we saw what could happen..and people had more money than ever. For the next 40+ years...most families had stable finances..oh..cut me the slack jobs were easy to get up to the 80's. The 50's saw civil rights for latinos and blacks...Chavez and Alinsky with many more...were organizers and did a great job...they removed the last of the blockade.