The Myth of Gay Wealth and Queer Housing Needs
Admit it. Once or twice it’s crossed your mind: Gay guys got green. You think we are living up in some fancy trailer in the Castro. Well honey, it just ain’t true. That’s just another urban myth that you can file alongside the one about the crocodiles in the sewers of New York City and the one about a compassionate conservative in Washington, D.C. According to the Urban Men’s Health Study by Dr. Joseph Catania at UCSF, gay men are twice as likely to live in poverty as the national average.
I was part of the clan that perpetuated the myth of gay affluence. At the time, many of us thought of it as another component in our struggle for equality: If we could break down the corporate walls, acceptance and civil rights would follow. We were probably right, but we still have a responsibility for dealing with the aftermath of that strategy.
Poverty is endemic to all parts of the LGBT community, especially transgender individuals, youth, and people of color. Single lesbians earn less money than their coupled counterparts and might earn more than non-lesbian women but less than straight men. Social stigma leave many of our elders without the type of social and familial support available to non-gay folks. Our lack of fair treatment in marriage laws leaves many of us who have lost our partners without the protection of Social Security survivors benefits.
The Board of Supervisors Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Housing Plan Work Group recently released findings with up to an estimated 2,500 homeless people with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco and 13,000 at risk for homelessness. 90% of people with HIV/AIDS are men who have sex with men. We are perhaps the group most disproportionately impacted by homelessness. Yet in the midst of this awful reality, the myth still prevails.
We do not have the same access to a familial safety net, making us more reliant on social services. We are also
Brian