Prior to the spring of 2020, little was known about food security rates for transgender+ and LGB+ individuals throughout the United States. Little was known because it was not measured. That began to change in April of 2020 when gender identity and sexuality questions were added onto a national survey– in part led by a Professor at our own University of New Hampshire– about food access. This provided the first look into country wide statistics on food insecurity for transgender+ and LGB+ individuals in the United States.
This survey, while breaking many data barriers, was limited in its effectiveness of gathering meaningful data as it only collected information about people’s food insufficiency within the last week. This range glosses over the fact that respondents can have both stable weeks and insecure weeks, so the data likely underrepresents that actual amount of food insecurity experienced (food insecurity measures inconsistent access to enough food whereas food insufficiency– a more severe category– measures not having enough to eat in the past week).
Despite this shortcoming, the survey has still provided a lot of information about New England food security that was previously untracked at such a scale. As a result, the queer perspective on the food system has been making its way into the conversation more and more over the past four years.
Discrimination– particularly job discrimination– on the basis of identity and representation has been pinpointed as a leading cause for the increased rate of poverty and food insecurity for LGBT+ individuals. This discrimination can lead to a difficulty finding a job or getting lower wages when they do find a job. In fact, while the average poverty rate for cisgender heterosexual (people who identify as their assigned gender at birth and are attracted only to the opposite gender) is 16%, the rate is increased to 22% for LGB+ and 29% for transgender+ people.
An increased rate of financial insecurity would consequently impact food security, and this poverty gap is seen even more extremely for LGBT+ people of color. The food security gap does indeed look similarly, with LGB+ folks in New England having a food insecurity rate of 13%, which is almost 2x as high as straight identifying individuals in the same region. The gap for transgender+ people is even higher at 19.8%, over 2x as high as cisgender women and 3x as high as cisgender men. These statistics overall depict a message of concern for queer relationships to food.
While this data shows a dismal outlook, now that this realm of research and documentation is beginning to grow, communities and organizations have a newfound awareness of the precarious food insecurity LGBT+ communities are facing. Very soon after the national survey report came out detailing what was found, New Hampshire organizations were already reacting to the need.
Two of these organizations were Seacoast Outright– a resource for LGBT+ youth on the Seacoast– and Gather– an organization focused on building food security on the Seacoast of New Hampshire and in Maine. Outright would suggest resources such as Gather to LGBT+ folks faced with food insecurity, and Gather had expressed interest in creating some sort of specialized approach to bridge the access gap for LGBT+ community members. This is a step in the right direction, though this work is ongoing and there’s a long way to go to ensure equitable access to food and food security for the LGBT+ community.
The numbers may seem daunting, but when the community decides to come together, great things can happen, and these great things certainly aren’t limited to food consumers! Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog series to hear about challenges and breakthroughs for LGBT+ food producers.
Written by James Rand