LGBTQ+ people in poverty often need the assistance of civil legal services. This is especially true given the high rates of violence, harassment, and discrimination (both in the workplace and in other areas of life) that LGBTQ+ communities face.⁸¹

People who identify as transgender and gender non-binary often face even more extreme rates of violence and discrimination, leaving them needing legal services at even higher rates. In addition, the violence towards the LGBTQ+ community is overwhelmingly towards people of color, meaning that access to legal services is especially critical for LGBTQ+ people of color.⁸² LGBTQ+ people who are low-income also have a variety of needs related to family law, in part due to the legal uncertainty and complexities following the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage and needing legal protection from intimate partner violence.

Legal Services NYC distributed an LGBTQ+ Low-Income Civil Legal Needs Assessment to assess the legal challenges that the LGBTQ+ low-income community in New York City face. The assessment found that LGBTQ+ people with low-incomes have significant legal needs in every major area of civil legal practice.⁸³

LGBTQ+ communities, particularly LGBTQ+ youth of color, are disproportionately over-policed.

Source: Movement Advancement Project and Center for American Progress. August 2016. _Unjust: How the Broken Criminal Justice System Fails LGBT People of Color_, https://www.lgbtmap.org/file/lgbt-criminal-justice-poc.pdf citing data from Angela Irvine, “Dispelling Myths: Understanding the Incarceration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Gender Nonconforming Youth,” Unpublished (Oakland, CA: National Council on Crim and Delinquency, 2014).

Criminalizing “Others”: Over-Policing of LGBTQ+ Communities

LGBTQ+ communities, particularly LGBTQ+ youth of color, are disproportionately over-policed. This over-policing is inextricably linked to heightened discrimination and bias that LGBTQ+ communities face as well as the lived realities that people living in poverty face day to day. Neighborhoods nationwide continue to be segregated based on race and class and police routinely over-police working-class communities of color instead of white, upper-class neighborhoods.⁸⁴

In a national survey of currently incarcerated individuals, nearly a fifth of respondents reported housing instability prior to their incarceration, while 29% lived with family or a friend.⁸⁵ Only 52% were living in a home of their own.⁸⁶ Over a third of respondents reported being unemployed prior to their incarceration, nearly 7 times the national unemployment rate in 2014.⁸⁷ To make ends meet, 39% of respondents reported trading sex for survival, while over half sold drugs.⁸⁸ A staggering 74% of those surveyed were held in jail pre-trial because they could not afford the bail assessed by their judge.⁸⁹ More than half of those incarcerated pre-trial were held for a year or even longer.⁹⁰

LGBTQ+ people are three times more likely to experience criminalization than the general population, and they are likelier to face worse outcomes while incarcerated.⁹¹ In jails nationwide, 3.3% of men identified as gay or bisexual, and 26.4% of women identified as lesbian or bisexual.⁹² This number climbs to 5.5% for men and to 33.3% for women in prisons.⁹³ LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately sexually assaulted by other people who are incarcerated. While 4% of heterosexual men report experience sexual assault, the number jumps to 34% for bisexual men and to 39% for gay men.⁹⁴ Similarly, of women who are incarcerated, 13% of heterosexual women, 18% of bisexual women, and 13% of lesbian women experience sexual assault.⁹⁵ Incarcerated transgender people are nearly ten times more likely to experience sexual assault, with about 40% reporting a sexual assault.⁹⁶

The impact of violence, both in government facilities like prison and in general in the lives of LGBTQ+ people, is profound. 50% of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers with low-incomes reported some form of violence with 27% reporting experiences of domestic violence, 25% reporting sexual assault, and 20% reporting abuse or neglect by a parent or guardian.⁹⁷ This violence impacts the lives of many LGBTQ+ individuals each day. It affects their safety at home, their safety at work, and their safety on the streets.

For the disproportionate amount of LGBTQ+ people who spend any time incarcerated, once released, finding a job can be an insurmountable task. Only 12.5 percent of employers reported a willingness to consider formerly incarcerated applicants.⁹⁸ Although that percentage is on the rise, with over half of Americans feeling comfortable buying goods and services from a business where the customer-facing employee has spent 5 or more years in prison⁹⁹, still 60-75% of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed after their release from prison.¹⁰⁰ LGBTQ+ people, people of color, and people who were formerly incarcerated all face discrimination, certainly in employment. The overlapping of these identities can make it extremely difficult to financially support oneself and one’s family, further enabling the cycle of poverty to persist.

Citations for "Coming Out of the Court House: The Disconnect Between 'Access' to Justice for LGBTQ+ People and Actually Finding it"

⁸¹ See Legal Services NYC, “Poverty is an LGBT Issue: An Assessment of the Legal Needs of Low-Income LGBT People,” 2016. https://www.legalservicesnyc.org/news-and-events/press-room/966-poverty-is-an-lgbt-issue-new-report-identifies-low-income-lgbt-legal-needs-
⁸² See id.
⁸³ See id.
⁸⁴ See Movement Advancement Project and Center for American Progress. “Unjust: How the Broken Criminal Justice System Fails LGBT People of Color,” August 2016. https://www.lgbtmap.org/file/lgbt-criminal-justice-poc.pdf.
⁸⁵ See Black & Pink, “Coming Out of Concrete Closets” 2015. https://www.blackandpink.org/coming-out-of-concrete-closets.
⁸⁶ See id.
⁸⁷ See id.
⁸⁸ See id.
⁸⁹ See id.
⁹⁰ See id.
⁹¹ See The Williams Institute, “Incarceration Rates and Traits of Sexual Minorities in the United States: National Inmate Survey, 2011-2012” 2017. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wpcontent/uploads/Meyer_Final_Proofs.LGB_.In_.pdf.
⁹² See id.
⁹³ See id.
⁹⁴ See Beck, A., & Johnson, C. “Sexual Victimization Reported By Former State Prisoners,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2012. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svrfsp08.pdf. See also “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported By Inmates,” http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112_st.pdf.
⁹⁵ See id.
⁹⁶ See id.
⁹⁷ See Legal Services NYC, supra note 11.
⁹⁸See Holzer, Harry & Raphael, Steven & Stoll, Michael. “Will Employers Hire Ex-Offenders? Employer Checks, Background Checks, and Their Determinants.” Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Working Paper Series, 2001. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46438260_Will_Employers_Hire_Ex-Offenders_Employer_Checks_Background_Checks_and_Their_Determinants.
⁹⁹ See SHRM. Workers with Criminal Records: “Consumer and Employee Perspectives.” 16 August 2019. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/Pages/Workers-with-Criminal-Records-Consumer-and-Employee-Perspectives.aspx.
¹⁰⁰See J. Petersilia, “When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry,” Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press, 2003; J. Travis, “But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry,” Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press, 2005. https://www.nelp.org/publication/reentry-and-employment-for-the-formerly-incarcerated-and-the-role-of-american-trades-unions/#_edn2.