Despite recent advances, LGBT civil rights are rarely addressed in policy debates surrounding poverty. Gay men are sometimes poorer and sometimes less poor than heterosexual men, but recent findings show that lesbian women are consistently poorer than their heterosexual counterparts.The National Survey of Family Growth found that, 24% of lesbian and bisexual women between the ages of 18-44 are living in poverty while only 19% of heterosexual women are. Yet NSFG data shows that gay and heterosexual men have relatively equal poverty rates: gay-15% and heterosexual- 13%. So clearly not only does sexuality play into poverty but gender also plays a role. A 2009 Transgender Law Center report also found that transgender Californians are twice as likely to be below the federal poverty line than the general population, 1 in 5 survey respondents reported being homeless since first identifying as transgender.
It's obvious that sexuality plays a role in poverty just like race and ethnicity, and even though there have been many advances in civil rights for the LGBT community which is a great step forward, the fact of the matter is that it is causing some people to live in poverty and how is that right, someone living in harsh conditions because of their sexuality. Hopefully the advances happening today will increase but until then sexuality can affect, who hires you, what job you can have, your salary, and many more things that don't have the slightest thing to do with someones sexuality but just like race, its still a prejudice that exists today.