A new study published last week has found that Black, LGBTQ adults living in the U.S. were more likely to experience economic insecurity and physical and mental health issues than Black, non-LGBTQ adults. The Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles released last Monday that of the estimated, 1.2 million, Black, LGBTQ adults in the U.S., nearly 40 percent of them will have a household income of less than $24,000, according to the sample. This is in comparison to 33 percent of Black, non-LGBQT adults in the same year, 2016 to 2017. While 10 percent of Black, non-LGBTQ adults were unemployed, 14 percent of Black, LGBTQ adults were unemployed, and were 10 percent more likely to experience food insecurity than their straight and cisgender counterparts (37 percent and 27 percent, respectively). This statistic widened when only comparing women in the category, with 41 percent of Black, LGBTQ women and 29 percent of Black, non-LGBTQ women having experienced food insecurity in the past year. Similarly to food insecurity, the statistics on Black, LGBTQ women drove the inequality in healthcare with one-fifth being found uninsured. In contrast, only 12 percent of Black, non-LGBTQ women lacked insurance. The study noted this difference between women and men in the Black, LGBTQ community. “Additionally, several domains of disparities were experienced the most by Black, LGBTQ women or Black women in general, pointing to an area requiring an intersectional lens to examine the mechanisms by which these outcomes occur disproportionally. Future research should examine in more detail the potential mechanisms for the LGBTQ subpopulation differences among Black adults in the U.S.” Related article: Black, Gay, and Political- Drexel Heard Mental health issues also differed greatly, with 26 percent of Black LGBTQ adults having been diagnosed with depression at some point, compared to the much lower 15 percent of Black adults in general. Physical health issues were found to be more common among Black, LGBTQ adults as well—Black, LGBTQ adults were overall more likely to have been diagnosed with chronic health conditions such as cancer, asthma, or heart attack than their straight and cisgender counterparts. When the study examined the experiences of Black adults with everyday discrimination, results were generally equal between both LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ groups. Yet, when participants were asked about their feelings of connectedness with their minority communities, there was a large disparity between Black, cisgender, queer adults and Black, transgender adults. Sixty-two percent of Black, cisgender, lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults felt connected to a minority community they were a part of, but only 29 percent of Black, transgender adults reported feeling the same.
