How does supporting LGBTQ help our Economy?
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/
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