Partnership Policy Spotlight
Community Action Celebrates
Community Action Colleagues,

LGBTQIA+ history is American history. Since before the founding, transgender and bisexual individuals, lesbians, gay men, and intersex and asexual individuals have shared, worked in, and led our communities. They serve in the military, advance scientific knowledge, play professional sports, and accelerate social movements. But for centuries, discriminatory cultural norms and laws criminalizing their identity forced many to hide their true selves. In the 1880s, William Dorsey Swann, a formerly enslaved person living in Washington, DC, became the first leader of a queer resistance group and the first to dub himself a “queen of drag.” Eighty years later, trans women of color (like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, above) were at the forefront of a resistance movement that would result in the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, and, three years later, to the Stonewall riots in New York.

During the 1960s, soliciting same-sex relations was illegal in New York City and the liquor licensing authority refused licenses to or shut down establishments that served known or suspected LGBTQ+ customers. On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village. The violent treatment of customers by police incensed the crowd, which began throwing coins and bottles at the police and then erupted into a full-blown riot. The uprising lasted six days. On the first anniversary of the uprising, a parade was held to commemorate the event, which became the basis for the gay pride parades held around the world today.
Government discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community has created disparate access to opportunities for LGBTQ+ individuals in the U.S. and across the world. Despite some recent advances in legal protections, social acceptance, and representation in popular culture, the poverty rate among individuals identifying as LGBTQ+ is considerably higher than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts (21.6% and 15.7%, respectively). Poverty rates are even higher among some groups within the community, including transgender individuals (29.4%), Black LGBTQ+ individuals (30.8%), and LGBTQ+ individuals living in rural communities (26.1%). This has compounded disparities in areas like housing, employment, health care access, food insecurity, and policing. Check out our LGBTQIA+ Policy Brief to learn more!.

Ensuring that all members of the LGBTQ+ community have meaningful access to programs and services that are offered in inclusive, welcoming settings is crucial to addressing the causes and conditions of poverty. CAAs and State Associations have a crucial and powerful role to play in their communities by providing those services and advocating at all levels of government to move policies forward that improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people in all communities.