Aime Santilln

Literature Review
On June 26, 2015, the LGBT community reached an incredible milestone, when
the United States Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples would have the
constitutional right to marry. However, marriage equality was not the only issue that the
community had been facing. Violence, discrimination, poverty, among others, were also
important issues that, now that marriage equality was granted, have been emphasized.
Despite successes like the Pentagons lifting the ban on military service by
transgender people and the Supreme Courts legalization of same-sex marriage, obstacles
to acceptance and equality remain, wrote Liam Stack in The New York Times. Violence
has been one of the greatest and hardest issues that the LGBT community has been
facing. According to the FBI, bias against sexual orientation and gender identity
accounted for more than 21 percent of hate crimes reported in 2013, with sexuality the
second most common single-bias category following race, states Annamarya Scaccia in
Rolling Stone Magazine. Furthermore, The New York Times provided a new statistical
bar graph that shows how LGBT members have rose to be primary targets of hate crimes.

Now, members of the LGBT community have become primary targets of discriminatory
violence, and, according to the chart they have been among the primary targets for more
than ten years.
Moreover, the LBGT community has been dealing with discrimination. States
have been one of the leading actors of acts of discrimination against LGBT members.
There have been more than 100 anti-LGBT bills passed by states since 2015 (Stack,
2016). For example, the Huffington Post stated that there has been a new law in
Mississippi that gives the right to any person or business to deny services to same-sex
couples because of religious objections. Also, in North Carolina, the governor signed a
law banning cities from passing LGBT anti-discrimination ordinances and barring
transgender people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity (Everything
you need to know about the wave of 100+ anti-LGBT bills pending in states, 2016).
Lastly, the Huffington post wrote that, in a lot of places, you can go to your county clerk
and get a marriage license and get married and then get fired the next week because now
you are openly gay. Meaning that, LGBT members have been facing discrimination in
the work place as well. A report made by The Williams Institute UCLA School of Law,
showed that, 37 percent if LG people have experienced workplace harassment in the last
five years, and 12 percent had lost a job because of their sexual orientation, according to
the last 2008 General Social Survey. The report also stated that in 2011, 90 percent of
transgender people reported that they had experienced harassment or mistreatment at
work. It does not only go to LGBT members being fired or not being able to find a job
because of their sexual orientation or sexual identity, but they are also paid significantly
less than heterosexual people. There is a wage gap between homosexuals and

heterosexuals. The LGBT community earns as little as $0.68 for every dollar that a
heterosexual man earns, even when qualifications are equal or even greater for the LGBT
worker (Gaille, 2015).
Also, LGBT members have been facing problems with poverty and homelessness.
A report called Poverty in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Community, made by the
Williams Institute shows the difference in poverty between heterosexuals and
homosexuals/bisexuals:

The reports main findings showed that, gay and lesbian couple families are significantly
more likely to be poor than are heterosexual married couple families. Specifically,
lesbian couples seemed more likely to live in poverty than men homosexual couples, or
heterosexual couples and their families (Albelda, Lee Badgett, Schneebaum & Gates,
2009). Furthermore, another article by the Williams Institute UCLA School of Law
stated that LGBT people usually face the same challenges that heterosexual people face

when it comes to financial hardship (Sears & Badgett, 2012). However, it also states that,
they also face unique obstacles because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
These include a higher risk of being homeless when they are young, harassment and
discrimination at school and at workplace. Beyond the stereotypical image of a LG
person being gay, white, young people that do not have children , the problem of
LGBT issues with poverty happens mostly with minorities. For example, homosexual
women do not only face sexist discrimination in the workplace, or sexist discrimination
overall. According to the article by the Williams Institute, twenty-four percent of
lesbians and bisexual women are poor, compared with only 19 percent of heterosexual
women. (Its not that gay and bisexual men arent poor, but their poverty rates are
roughly equal (13 percent) to those of heterosexual men.) People of color are also most
likely to live in poverty than their heterosexual counterparts and than homosexual white
men (Sears & Badgett, 2012). The Williams Institute article explains, African-American
same-sex couples are significantly more likely to be poor than African-American married
heterosexual counterparts and are roughly three times more likely to live in poverty than
white same-sex couples. Moreover, according to the article transgender people are the
most economically vulnerable within the LGBT community (Sears & Badgett, 2012). The
Williams Institute article acknowledged that, according to the National Transgender
Discrimination Survey, transgender people are four times as likely to have a household
income under $10,000 and twice as likely to be unemployed as the typical person in the
U.S. Almost one in five reported being homeless at some point in their lives.
Additionally, discriminatory laws passed by states have affected LGBT members
with their level of poverty. According to an article by talkpoverty.org, written by Ineke

Muschovic & Laura E. Durso, anti-LGBT laws drive economic insecurity for LGBT
people, including higher rates of poverty. This is clearly shown in a movement
advancement project, which shares that, Penalty for Being LGBT in America documents
how LGBT people in the United States face clear financial penalties because of three
primary failures in the law. One of these failures includes a lack of protection from
discrimination by states. LGBT people can be fired, denied housing and credit, and
refused medically necessary healthcare simply because they are LGBT (LGBT
Economic Security, 2016). Another of these failures include the refusal to recognize
LGBT families, which means that, LGBT families are denied many of the same benefits
afforded to non-LGBT families when it comes to health insurance, taxes, vital safety-net
programs, and retirement planning (LGBT Economic Security, 2016). Lastly, the
article mentions that another failure has been the failure to adequately protect LGBT
students, which means that, LGBT people and their families often face a hostile, unsafe
and unwelcoming environment in local schools, as well as discrimination in accessing
financial aid and other support.
The main ways that all of these issues could be addressed would be just by simple
acceptance of the LGBT community within our own society. Like an article made by the
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner states, deeply-embedded homophobic
and transphobic attitudes, often combined with a lack of adequate legal protection against
discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, expose many lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of all ages and in all regions of the word
egregious violations of their human rights. Which means that not only legal protection
could be the best weapon about these very important LGBT issues, but also the attitudes

of people that have contact and sometimes even power with LGBT people. Also,
according to this article, concerns about these and related human rights violations have
been expressed repeatedly by United Nations human rights mechanisms since the early
1990s. These concerns have been addressed by the United Nations by monitoring states
in their biased anti-LGBT laws, and it has also been pushing for human rights challenges.
The UN has also been delivering major policy speeches defending and advocating for an
end to violence and harmful medical practices on LGBT children and adults, issues on
recent arrests and on respecting the rights of all persons regardless of their sexual
orientations, among others (Combating discrimination based on sexual orientation and
gender identity, 2016). Finally, the article showed that, protecting LGBT people from
violence and discrimination does not require the creation of a new set of LGBT-specific
rights, nor does it require the establishment of new international human rights standards.
It showed that the obligations of States towards the LGBT community is to protect those
individuals from homophobic and transphobic violence, to prevent torture and cruel
treatment towards LGBT people, to repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality and
transgender people, to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender
identity, and to safeguard freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly for
all LGBT people (Combating discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender
identity, 2016).
Marriage equality had been a real high for the LGBT community, and it
also has been helping hide the real problems that the LGBT community has been facing.
After the Supreme Court granted marriage equality, there has been an illusion throughout
the country that the American community has been more accepting of LGBT people,

although it seems it is not true. An article by Advocate.com showed this clearly by

advocating about poverty in the LGBT community, which has been very real, and often
overlooked. LGBT people who are living in poverty still bear the brunt of savage
homophobia and transphobia, without the resources to challenge them or even escape
them. The results of this discrimination are devastating: homelessness, unemployment,
hunger, and violence (Heintz, 2016). The LGBT community still struggles with greater
issues beyond marriage equality, and according to this article, these issues need to stop
being invisible to the public in order for them to be addressed and begin their own
progress.
As can be seen, the main path that needs to be taken in addressing LGBT issues
that had been overlooked before marriage equality was granted is that society has to work
in acceptance in order to abolish discrimination, violence and poverty in LGBT people.
Just like At the Crossroads Building Movement put it, marriage has also become so
identified as the movement, especially for non-LGBT allies, that it threatens to leave out
other crucial issues that would ensure full acceptance and just treatment of all LGBT
people. However, the passing of marriage equality could also be the first step into
addressing all those other important issues. As also stated in the article, winning
marriage equality, like other single-issue fixed to the rights of oppressed groups, could
mean the sidelining of other important LGBT issues and that the movement like
reproductive rights and racial equity may stall and become vulnerable to new backlash
strategies from the opposition, all of which could rollback the hard-fought progress of
today (At the crossroads, 2016).

Since marriage equality, there has been a wave of hate crimes and discrimination
against LGBT members. But, even though that had been happening, there has also been a
gate open for more progress in the LGBT rights movement.
There has been 21 percent of LGBT employees have reported having been
discriminated in the workplace, specifically with hiring, promotions and pay, and 64
percent of transgender people report having earned incomes of $25,000 or lower (37
shocking LGBT discrimination statistics, 2015). There has also been nearly a fifth of the
5,462 single-biased hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2016 were done because of the
targets sexual orientation, or their perceived orientation (Park & Mykhyalyshyn, 2016).
There has also been a have of more than one hundred anti-LGBT laws passed by states
(Everything you need to know about the wave of 100+ anti-LGBT bills pending in
states, 2016). And, this shows that even though the LGBT rights movement has reached
incredible milestones, there is still so much to work on.
Therefore, according to the Advocate.com article We Must Deal With LGBT
Poverty, one of the first steps into addressing these issues is to accept that there has been
a development of homophobia and transphobia throughout the country since marriage
equality has passed. Discrimination, violence, and poverty in the LGBT community can
only be abolished by the society around them.

Albelda, R., Badgett, M. L., Schneebaum, A., & Gates, G. J. (2009, March). POVERTY
IN THE LESBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL COMMUNITY. The Williams
Institute.
At the Crossroads. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2016, from
http://www.buildingmovement.org/reports/entry/at_the_crossroads
Beyond Stereotypes: Poverty in the LGBT Community. (2012). Retrieved November 06,
2016, from http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/headlines/beyond-stereotypespoverty-in-the-lgbt-community/
Combating discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 06, 2016, from
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Discrimination/Pages/LGBT.aspx
Employers less likely to interview openly gay men for job openings: Study. (2011,
October 3). The University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from Employers less
likely to interview openly gay men for job openings: Study
Everything You Need To Know About The Wave Of 100 Anti ... (2016, September 23).
Retrieved November 6, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lgbtstate-bills-discrimination_us_570ff4f2e4b0060ccda2a7a9
Gaille, B. (2015). 37 Shocking LGBT Discrimination Statistics - BrandonGaille.com.
Retrieved November 06, 2016, from http://brandongaille.com/37-shocking-lgbtdiscrimination-statistics/
Heintz, B. A. (2016, January 25). We Must Deal With LGBT Poverty. Retrieved
November 06, 2016, from http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/1/25/wemust-deal-lgbt-poverty

LGBT Economic Security. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2016, from

http://www.lgbtmap.org/policy-and-issue-analysis/lgbt-economic-security
Park, H., & Mykhyalyshyn, I. (2016, June 15). L.G.B.T. People Are More Likely to Be
Targets of Hate Crimes Than Any Other Minority Group. Retrieved November
06, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/16/us/hate-crimesagainst-lgbt.html
Scaccia, A. (n.d.). 4 LGBT Issues to Focus on Now That We Have Marriage Equality.
Retrieved November 06, 2016, from
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/4-lgbt-issues-to-focus-on-now-thatwe-have-marriage-equality-20150629
Stack, L. (2016, June 30). The Challenges That Remain for L.G.B.T. People After
Marriage Ruling. Retrieved November 06, 2016, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/us/the-challenges-that-remain-for-lgbtpeople-after-marriage-ruling.html