How does supporting LGBTQ help our Economy?
By Emily Imig
Some People think that supporting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) community won't do anything to help the economy, which is not true. Helping the LGBTQ community will actually help improve the economy. The opportunity cost of a county being anti LGBTQ is actually negatively impacting them. The country is losing tourist money and they are losing population from people fleeing the country in fear of unexpectedness.
LGBTQ kids are more likely to be mistreated at school. ½ to ⅔ of LGBTQ kids experience bullying in school. Which is causing one in three of them to skip or drop out of school which causes a decrease in education. The drop in education then causes a drop in the economy for when they grow up they won't have the education to get higher valued jobs. There potential is lost.
Not only are those kids dropping out of school but some of the LGBTQ kids don’t get support from their family when they come out. Some parents even go to the extent of throwing their kid out of there house. This causes an increase in our homeless and a decrease in our work force. Them being thrown out means they don't get the support they need for food and clothing, so then the government will have to start supporting them. Which can cause an increase in debt for the government.
Studies have shown that Joblessness, poverty, food insecurity, and depression is higher in the LGBTQ community. The Causes of Poverty are shift in family structure, location, racial and gender discrimination, growth of low-skill service jobs and lack of education. 4 out of 5 of those causes hit the LGBTQ community. The first one being the family structure; some LGBTQ people don't get any support from family that they need. The second cause of poverty is the location of where they live regarding if their country accepts them. Racial, gender discrimination hits them the hardest since it’s their gender and sexuality identification that might stop them from moving somewhere or taking a job where there is less accepting people of the LGBTQ community. Then there is the lack of education since LGBTQ people are more likely to drop out of school. This affects the economy, for the LGBTQ community is part of the country’s population and if most of the LGBTQ percentage is in poverty, that increases the country's poverty rates.
The countries that do support the LGBTQ community have acutely shown economic improvement. There was a study of 39 countries. Those Countries that except the LGBTQ community have a higher level of GDP per capita compared to countries in that study, that do not except those in the LGBTQ community. “Countries that treat LGBT people equally also have better-performing economies” M.V. Lee Badgett. Theses are studies that have proven that excepting the LGBTQ community have helped there economy.
Those countries that don’t except the LGBTQ community have a loss in their economies productivity. If countries want to improve their economy it would be wise for them to have laws that support the LGBTQ community.
BADGETT M.V. LEE, The Economic Case for Supporting LGBT Rights, The Atlantic,
29 Nov. 2014 https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/11/the-economic-case-for-supporting-lgbt-rights/383131/
Thinkstock,
I knew that the openness of LGBTQ has steadily increased over the years, and that it's been making more and more of an impact on people, but I hadn't even considered its economic impact. It's interesting, and a bit disheartening/disconcerting to realize the deep and lasting effects of turning away from the LGBTQ community. For some reason, though, this post made me begin to wonder how vegans, vegetarians, and the like impact the economy. Do they help it or harm it? Huh.
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This is a very interesting topic. While yes, supporting them and helping them find jobs and become more independent would be beneficial, financially, how can we stop the kids from dropping out of high school because of discrimination, no matter how hard people try, there are always those few bullies that will emotionally impact them, and their is no way to economically fix that. Another idea is that perhaps the kids who drop out, it might make sense to attempt to provide schooling for them in a better environment so they can continue to become independent members of society. However the opportunity cost of this is it costs more and more money. Overall, an interesting topic worth considering.
ReplyDeleteI have never really thought about how the economy is affected by the LGBTQ community, but it makes sense. With an ever growing openness and awareness of this community, our economy is most likely growing steadily from it. More people are starting to accept the LGBTQ community, but I feel like there will always be people who don’t accept. There will always be bullies, but with our ever changing world today, maybe it will be easier to overcome these bullies or enemies in order to help our economy.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of the economic impact of LGBTQ until I read this post. I've been trying to avoid reading anything about LGBTQ because although I support peoples choices in gender preferences, I think the progressive views are being pushed too hard upon us. I don't see much of an economic impact of the LGBTQ in your writing, because I think more statistics should have been included.
ReplyDeleteI do see where you are coming from and I can see that supporting the LGBTQ community can help but I do not think that it is as much of an impact to where every country that supports it has better productivity because the community is not big enough to make huge economic change. To most people, in my opinion, consider people in the LGBTQ community to be not normal so it makes sense why the majority of people in the world do not except them which does have a small impact on the economy like you said. I look at this topic for a stand point of this. 50 years ago we did not see nearly as much LGBTQ community members as we see today and we are still going further and further in debt just like we were before. I think you made some great points but this is kind of a hard topic to really get both sides on in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI would tend to agree with both Alec and Zach. There was just not enough statistical evidence to show any sort of economic impact by supporting LGBTQ. That being said, I do believe that everyone should be accepted for who they are.
ReplyDeleteYou give evidence of a study where 39 countries, the best well off of which, were the ones that supported LGBTQ. Well if we have a look at which countries support those rights (or at least have them legalized, for the sake of the argument) these countries include the US, the UK, and France. These countries alone are better off economically than many others. The countries that (in the study) had lower GDP per Capita included countries such as, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Sure LGBTQ is illegal there, but their governments are already screwed up. There is no real correlation between LGBTQ support and the economic structure of the government. Even if it was legalized, employers could still discriminate against them. So sure they could be legal, but they still would be unemployed and not helping the economy whatsoever.
After reading this, I've realized it's important to keep in mind how this subject has divided us greatly. People who are considered homophobic have gone to the extent of mass murders in the U.S and trying to end festivals promoting equality. The second something becomes violent and deathly, it's effecting our economy. Not that the U.S has to parade the fact that we allow gay marriage and gender change operations but by being okay with it and being accepting of others will prevent violence, bullying, suicide and homelessness. These are undeniable issues we can actually see happening. Although the economy wouldn't exactly better or grow, it would prevent a lot of potential harm and crime in the U.S by supporting this community.
ReplyDeleteI never knew how much the LGBTQ community affected the economy. Although this is new information once its explain this is not surprising. Lots of kids do get kicked out and drop out because of this but I feel like when people get kicked out or drop out they do somewhat help the economy because they are on their own so they have to depend on themselves which motivates them to get jobs.
ReplyDeleteThe overall happiness and well-being of people in a country certainly affects an economy, and with your paper that's even more pointed out. When people focus so much on discrimination, it affects the economy. There are many businesses who secretly discriminate and won't hire or sell to LGBTQ. So really with their discrimination, they're just making things worst. Also when LGBTQ are discriminated it affects their mental health, which can affect their work or education, which in the end affects the economy. People need to stop discriminating and start accepting. When people are happy and healthy, all parts of economy and life in general are happy too.
ReplyDeleteIt's depressing to have people be reminded that exempting people of the LGBTQ community is in fact hurting our economy, when they are a part of our countries just as much as anyone else is. It's too easy to blame the shortfalls of the economy on the government or other sources but the problem is usually within the people. Like you stated there are some countries that the government is to blame, but also in a country like ours it's simply those who don't look beyond other's titles that negatively impacts those in the community.
ReplyDeleteCorrelation does not imply causation. Going from "countries that except the LGBTQ community have a higher level of GDP per capita" to "theses are studies that have proven that excepting the LGBTQ community have helped there economy". is a claim founded on very weak evidence and logic. I am not arguing that there isn't a correlation between progressiveness and economic prosperity, but the implied notion that if all these traditionalist, poor, third world countries would be as economically prosperous as the United States if they just accepted LGBTQ people is ridiculous. Countries mature through predictable stages, both economically and socially. This does not imply that social progress will pull economic progress.
ReplyDelete