Executive Summary
Contrary to popular stereotypes of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community as affluent, research demonstrates not only widespread economic diversity among LGBT people but also that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people are often more likely to be poor than straight people and that transgender individuals face extremely high rates of poverty.
This report examines one form of poverty – food insecurity – among LGB/T and non-LGB/T people using the most recent population-based data available. People are described as “food insecure” when they have limited or uncertain access to adequate food. We also examine participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, which is another way to assess risk for food insecurity. To qualify for SNAP benefits, a person or household must generally meet certain poverty-level income and resource thresholds.
Analyses of multiple data sources demonstrate that food insecurity and SNAP participation are common among LGB/T people, and that LGB/T individuals and adults in same-sex couples often experience food insecurity and SNAP participation at higher levels than their non-LGB/T and different-sex couple counterparts. Key findings include:
- More than 1 in 4 LGBT adults (27%), approximately 2.2 million people, experienced a time in the last year when they did not have enough money to feed themselves or their families, compared to 17% of non-LGBT adults.
- 18% of LGB adults reported that they or someone in their family went without food for an entire day in the past 30 days.
- 14% of LGB adults reported running out of food for their families and not having money for more in the past 30 days.
- 9% of LGB adults reported that they ate less than they believed they should in the past 30 days.
- 6% of LGB adults reported going hungry in the past 30 days.
With respect to SNAP, key findings include:
- More than 1 in 4 LGB adults aged 18-44 (27%) participated in SNAP, compared to 20% of non-LGB adults in that age range.
- More than 1 in 10 adults in same-sex couples (11%) participated in SNAP, compared to 9% of adults in different-sex couples.
Food insecurity and SNAP participation are not distributed evenly across the LGB/T community. Rather, we find that women, younger people, certain racial and ethnic minorities, those without college degrees, unmarried individuals, and those with children in the home are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Key findings include:
- Among LGBT people, 31% of women and 22% of men reported not having enough money for food in the past year.
- 31% of LGBT people aged 18-29 and 29% of LGBT people aged 30-49 reported not having enough money for food in the past year.
- Among LGBT people, 42% of African-Americans, 33% of Hispanics, 32% of American Indians and Alaskan Natives, and 21% of Whites reported not having enough money for food in the past year.
- 35% of LGBT people with a high school degree or less and 29% of LGBT people with some college education reported not having enough money for food in the past year.
- 30% of unmarried LGBT people and 15% of married LGBT people reported not having enough money for food in the past year.
- 33% of LGBT people raising children and 24% of LGBT people not raising children reported not having enough money for food in the past year.
Using multivariate analyses, we find that elevated risk of food insecurity and SNAP participation for LGB/T individuals and adults in same-sex couples remains even when differences in demographic characteristics are taken into account, including gender, age, educational attainment, and race/ethnicity. Key findings include:
- LGBT adults are 1.62 times more likely than non-LGBT adults, on average, to report not having enough money for the food that they or their families needed at some point in the last year.
- LGB adults aged 18 to 44 are 1.36 times more likely than non-LGB adults of the same age to have participated in SNAP in the past year.
- Adults in same-sex couples are 1.58 times more likely than different-sex couples to have participated in SNAP in the past year.