Thursday, March 26, 2009

Poverty in Gay and Lesbian Households

A few years ago the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever had a "town hall" meeting that we refer to as the Hatefest. They lined up a series of fairly well-known anti-gay speakers, and some of us attended and recorded the event. I think I speak for the rest when I say we all felt like we needed a bath afterwards. It was the ugliest event I have ever attended. CRW leaders even had to apologize in the press afterwards, the hatred was tangible, the mood of the meeting was frightening.

One speaker was Montgomery County resident Peter Sprigg, who is Vice President for Policy at the Family Research Council. He talked about the "myths about homosexuality," the point of his talk was that hateful stereotypes of gay people are in fact accurate. You can read a transcript of his talk HERE.

One thing he said was:
Uh the next myth is that homosexuals are seriously disadvantaged by discrimination in our society. If this were true it would support the notion that homosexuals are in need of special protections under the law. However, by two of the most common measures of social disadvantage, education and income, it is not true. The research shows that homosexuals actually have significantly higher levels of educational attainment than the general public while their findings on homosexual incomes are at worst mixed. Here’s uh an a study from the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management which said QUOTE In contrast to studies of anti-discrimination laws for women and ethnic minorities, we have produced no evidence that employment protections for sexual orientation directly increase average earnings for members of same-sex households. END QUOTE

A study published last week was reported in the Minnesota Independent:
A study released on Friday (PDF) by the Williams Institute at the UCLA College of Law found that gay and lesbian couples face higher rates of poverty than heterosexual married couples.

“The myth of gay and lesbian affluence is just that – a myth,” said the study’s authors. “Lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals are as likely to be poor as are heterosexuals, while gay and lesbian couple households, after adjusting for the factors that help explain poverty, are more likely to be poor than married heterosexual couple households.”

Children living in a same-sex household had poverty rates that were twice as high as those of married couples. One in five children in same-sex families was poor compared to one in ten for married families.

The poverty rate for lesbian families is 9.4 percent compared to 6.7 percent for those in married families.

Twenty-four percent of lesbians and bisexual women faced poverty compared to 19 percent of women nationally.

Gay and bisexual men had poverty rates of 15 percent compared to 13 percent of all men. Study: Same-sex couples face higher poverty rates

Some findings from the study document itself:
  • After adjusting for a range of family characteristics that help explain poverty, gay and lesbian couple families are significantly more likely to be poor than are heterosexual married couple families.
  • Notably, lesbian couples and their families are much more likely to be poor than heterosexual couples and their families.
  • Children in gay and lesbian couple households have poverty rates twice those of children in heterosexual married couple households.
  • Within the LGB population, several groups are much more likely to be poor than others. African American people in same-sex couples and same-sex couples who live in rural areas are much more likely to be poor than white or urban same-sex couples.
  • While a small percentage of all families receive government cash supports intended for poor and low-income families, we find that gay and lesbian individuals and couples are more likely to receive these supports than are heterosexuals.

While the rest of us might see a pattern of discrimination, you can see that the haters should be able to spin this the other way, portraying gays and especially lesbians as a bunch of underachieving welfare-handout-grabbing losers. Whatever, the "myth" debunked by Peter Sprigg appears not so debunked.

From the Independent again:
“The social and policy context of LGB life provides many reasons to think that LGB people are at least as likely — and perhaps more likely — to experience poverty as are heterosexual people: vulnerability to employment discrimination, lack of access to marriage, higher rates of being uninsured, less family support, or family conflict over coming out,” the study concluded. “All of those situations could increase the likelihood of poverty among LGB people.”

We'll watch and see how the Family Blah Blah groups depict this study, if they mention it at all.

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's Peter S. Sprigg to you, Jim!

March 26, 2009 11:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the S stands for sue.

March 26, 2009 12:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I think I speak for the rest when I say we all felt like we needed a bath afterwards."

Well, haven't you taken one yet?

It doesn't hurt.

You guys really stank when you were trying to bully citizens into not exercising their constitutional rights to petition last year.

btw, Peter cited a study. So did you. What reason is there to assume that yours is correct and he is not?

And don't attack him for taking baths. You should try it.

March 26, 2009 5:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I think I speak for the rest when I say we all felt like we needed a bath afterwards."

You know, Jim's right about this.

I saw a couple of TTFers after that meeting and they definitely needed a bath.

One of them was wearing a roach motel around their neck.

March 26, 2009 5:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's what you've got? No wonder people don't like you.

March 26, 2009 5:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

don't be sensitive, passerby

soap is an affordable luxury

March 26, 2009 5:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I think I speak for the rest when I say we all felt like we needed a bath afterwards."

Even the CRC's leadership felt that they needed a bath afterward, or at least to distance themselves from the extreme hate and intolerance spewed by some of their speakers, especially their keynote speaker, Delegate Don Dwyer of Anne Arundel County.

As Jim reported in 2005, Jon Ward of the Washington Times noted:

Mr. Dwyer, who opposes the curriculum, said yesterday he himself was "spreading the hate of homosexual activists ... and the fear of what is going to happen if we don't do something about it."

Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum members distanced themselves from such statements.

"We do not go to the extremes that some of the speakers went to," said Steve Fisher, a group spokesman.

Said Mrs. Turner: "This was not about promoting hate or intolerance. We want the school system to know ... we want our values recognized as well."


So Steve Fisher and Michelle Turner both had to try to distance themselves from what their own speakers said. I don't recall TTF ever having to do that with its speakers, like the doctor from the AMA or the local accepting clergy members from many faiths.

soap is an affordable luxury

Tell that to the families living on the streets and in tent cities all over this nation.

March 27, 2009 8:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it was only TTFers who acknowledged they badly needed a bath

March 27, 2009 9:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it was only TTFers who acknowledged they badly needed a bath

March 27, 2009 9:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nobody said anyone "badly needed a bath" except you, and it was you who said "soap is an affordable luxury" when thousands of families can't even afford the "luxury" of a home these days.

I think you should stick some "affordable luxury" right in your own mouth.

March 27, 2009 10:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Nobody said anyone "badly needed a bath""

Yes, Jim said TTFers needed a bath:

"we all felt like we needed a bath"

Now, maybe if you take one, they'll let you watch Rachel Maddow again.

Crazy old bats, I tell ya.

btw, Bea, soap is in the category of affordable luxury.

It's one of those things like chocolate bars, that people could cut back on but generally don't and didn't even in the Great Depression.

In other words, no matter what kind of a mess Sir B.O. makes of our economy, TTFers should still be able to bathe.

There's no excuse for them to go a meeting and come out needing a bath.

March 27, 2009 11:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"thousands of families can't even afford the "luxury" of a home these days"

was there ever a time in the entire history of the world and up to the present day when you couldn't accurately make this statement?

do you do horoscopes too, Bea?

alot of crazy old bats are into that

March 27, 2009 11:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Anonymous" (in your various secretive guises)...why don't you try using some of that affordable soap in your mouth?? If anything needs cleaning out, it is your odious mouth. When I had to brush up against your screaming CRG shrews and your "Heil Hitler" idol at the Council meeting, I absolutely knew I needed a bath!!
Citizen

March 27, 2009 5:44 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

Jim said "we all felt like we needed a bath afterwards"

barryo said "TTFers who acknowledged they badly needed a bath"

and

There's no excuse for them to go a meeting and come out needing a bath.

The CRC spokesperson and President came out of their hatefest and told the press "We do not go to the extremes that some of the speakers went to," and "This was not about promoting hate or intolerance," as they attempted to wash their hands of their own selected speakers.

do you do horoscopes too, Bea?

No, barryo, I don't "do horoscopes."

Do you believe the relative positions of the stars provide useful information?

March 27, 2009 5:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Look, Bea, you crazy old bat, it was your supreme leader, Jim, who said you needed a bath.

You got a complaint?

Talk to your supreme leader.

I happen to agree with him. You mob of deadheads need a good scrubbing down- and a gift certificate for some anti-lice shampoo.

"Do you believe the relative positions of the stars provide useful information?"

No, I don't. But those who prey on the low IQ types that do usually use generalities like:

"thousands of families can't even afford the "luxury" of a home these days"

to support their claims.

March 27, 2009 8:53 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

"thousands of families can't even afford the "luxury" of a home these days"

to support their claims.


What claims? Claims of job loss leading to foreclosure and homelessness? You don't think homelessness, joblessness, and foreclosure claims are rising, sometimes to record levels? You really ought to get out of that closet or whatever it is you hide in and get real once in a while.

Go to Google Images and search for "homelessness, tent cities" and you'll see images like this one in Reno and this one in Sacramento.

Last October data began to show the rise in homelessness. USA Today reported

Homeless numbers 'alarming'
Updated 10/22/2008

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

More families with children are becoming homeless as they face mounting economic pressures, including mortgage foreclosures, according to a USA TODAY survey of a dozen of the largest cities in the nation.

Local authorities say the number of families seeking help has risen in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and Washington...

"We saw family homelessness began to increase last winter," says Sally Erickson, Portland's homeless program manager. "There's definitely a spike in the last six months." The number of requests for emergency shelter doubled from fiscal year 2007 to fiscal 2008, which ended in June.

Darlene Newsom, who runs United Methodist Outreach Ministries' New Day Centers, which provide shelter programs for families in Phoenix, says the number of requests is "alarming." She says families who never sought help before are calling.


In January of this year, the Sisters of Notre Dame reported

• In July - November 2008, compared with the same period in 2007, the number of families entering New York City homeless shelters jumped by 40 percent.

• Massachusetts reports a 32 percent increase between November 2007 and November 2008 in the number of homeless families residing in state-supported emergency shelters.

• In Connecticut, family homeless shelters turned away 30 percent more families due to lack of bed space in September 2008 than in September 2007.

• Hennepin County, Minnesota (Minneapolis) reports a 20 percent increase between the first 10 months of 2008 and the comparable period in 2007 in the number of homeless families in emergency shelters.

• Los Angeles County reports a 12 percent increase between September 2007 and September 2008 in the number of families receiving welfare assistance who are known to be homeless.

Two recent national surveys support these data. In a fall 2008 survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 16 of the 22 cities that provided data on the number of homeless families with children reported an increase in 2008, some of them substantial. (Louisville reported a 58 percent increase.) In another national survey, one in five responding school districts reported having more homeless children in the fall of 2008 than over the course of the entire 2007-2008 school year.


The US Conference of Mayors conducted a survey of change in homelessness and hunger in the US from 2007-2008.

The report reveals that on average, cities reported a 12 percent increase in homelessness from 2007 to 2008, with 16 cities citing an increase in the number of homeless families. The lack of affordable housing, poverty and unemployment were cited as the primary causes of homelessness for families. The lack of affordable housing, poverty and unemployment were cited as the primary causes of homelessness for families. For individuals, the top three causes cited were substance abuse, affordable housing and mental illness.

This year's survey included a special focus on the demand for government subsidized housing and the effect of the foreclosure crisis on homelessness. Twelve cities (63) percent reported an increase in homelessness because of the foreclosure crisis. However, many cities did not have enough data to quantify the extent of the increase. The tenants of rental units in buildings where the landlord faced foreclosure were the most vulnerable to becoming homeless. Also, when asked if their waiting lists for public housing and housing vouchers had increased or decreased, most cities reported that their waiting lists were closed to new applicants due to excess demand.

Not surprisingly, poverty, unemployment and the lack of affordable housing were also cited as the top three causes of hunger in the surveyed cities. The report shows that requests for emergency food assistance went up in nearly every city surveyed with the demand outpacing the supply in 20 cities. Significantly, an estimated 59 percent of requests for food assistance were coming from families — many for the first-time.


Interested readers can read the full report here.

These facts quite clearly demonstrate that "thousands of families can't even afford the "luxury" of a home these days."

March 28, 2009 4:37 PM  

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