The Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 ruling
in favor of marriage equality, bringing into law the “fundamental right to
marry” for same-sex couples across the United States was a landmark decision.
The LGBT community and its allies had spent decades fighting for it and many feared
it would never come.
Marriage
equality supporters spent Pride weekend rejoicing. But the road to full
equality remains long, and there are still many serious issues facing the LGBT
community. The issues—violence, employment discrimination, poverty and health
care—can be addressed now that marriage equality has been achieved.
Lesbian,
gay and transgender people, especially those of color, experience violence at
disproportionately high rates compared to heterosexuals. According to the FBI,
bias against sexual orientation and gender identity accounted for more than 21%
of hate crimes reported in 2013, with sexuality the second most common
single-bias category following race. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence
Programs found that while transgender survivors and victims represented only
19% of anti-LGBT violence reported to the organization, transgender women of
color accounted for 50% of homicide victims. Seven transgender women of color
were murdered in the United States during January and February (2015) alone,
which is nearly a murder a week.
A
2013 Pew Research Center survey found that 21% of the LGBT adults surveyed said
their employer treated them unfairly because of their sexuality or gender
identity. Another report, authored the National Black Justice Coalition and
other groups, found that nearly 50% of black LGBT people have experienced
employment discrimination. Rates are significantly higher for transgender
workers – some 90% of trans people have reported experiencing on-the-job
harassment or mistreatment, while 47% said they were fired, not hired or denied
a promotion because of their gender identity.
While
22 states have passed laws making job discrimination due to sexual orientation
illegal – 19 also include gender identity – LGBT workers still lack federal
protection. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, has been introduced
in nearly every Congress since 1994, but the hotly contested federal bill
didn’t make any headway until 2012, when the Senate for the first time passed
the legislation. Still, it failed to make it to the president’s desk.
Research
shows that anti-LGBT discrimination has harmful effects on LGBT workers’
economic wellbeing, leading to high rates of unemployment, homelessness, poor
health and food insecurity. Pew found that LGBT workers are more likely to earn
less annually compared to the general U.S. population. And the transgender
discrimination survey found that trans respondents are nearly four times more
likely to earn below $10,000 a year than the average American. A 2009 Williams
Institute report also found that same-sex couples are two times more likely to
live in poverty that different-sex couples, while single LGB adults are 1.2
times more likely to be poor than their straight counterparts.
Social
and systematic discrimination, as well as inadequate health care access,
contribute to health disparities for the LGBT community. According the Fenway
Institute, LGBT people are more likely that straight people to report unmet
health needs and have difficulty accessing care and obtaining insurance, when
leads to higher rates of disease, chronic illness, drug use, mental illness and
obesity among the population. These disparities are exacerbated for the
transgender community. The Transgender Law Center found that, in the private
market, the pervasiveness of gender identity discrimination in insurance,
denial of insurance coverage and transgender-related health care exclusions
keep transgender and gender non-conforming people from accessing medically
necessary care such as mental health services, surgery and hormone therapy.
