By Greg Wright, News contributor
Poverty rates among people who are LGBT are high, but economic insecurity is even greater for LGBT people of color, according to a report released by the Movement Advancement Project and the Center for American Progress.
NASW is a partner on the report, titled “Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for LGBT People of Color.”
About one third of LGBT people in the United States — or about 3 million adults — identify as people of color. This population and their families experience poverty rates far higher than the national average.
For instance, 52 percent of children raised by black male couples and 38 percent of children raised by black female couples live in poverty, compared with 15.2 percent of children living with black opposite-sex couples, the report says.
Several changes must be made to address such high poverty rates, the report says, including enacting laws that protect LGBT people of color and their families from discrimination and recognizing such families. Schools must address bullying, harassment, violence and other barriers that bar LGBT people of color from getting an education, it says.
“Disproportionate numbers of LGBT people of color live in places that lack any explicit state-level protections for LGBT people,” said Ineke Mushovic, executive director of the Movement Advancement Project. “This means that LGBT people of color face a high risk of economic harm from anti-LGBT laws.”
Download the report here.
From the July 2015 NASW News.
