From Visibility to Economic Power: Building Inclusive Economies for LGBTIQ People

From education to employment, LGBTIQ people face entrenched obstacles that hinder their economic participation. Outright’s research finds that the factors driving these gaps fall into a few broad categories​:

• Lifelong discrimination eroding opportunity: Bias and bullying throughout life mean many LGBTIQ individuals end up with less education, skills, and work experience than others​. This “human capital” gap starts early and follows them into the job market.
• Workplace stigma and harassment: Widespread prejudice leads employers to deny jobs or promotions to LGBTIQ candidates and creates hostile workplaces for those who are hired​. From cruel jokes to violence, stigma makes it hard for LGBTIQ employees to stay and advance in their jobs.
• Legal and social exclusion: Of 193 UN member states, only 77 prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, 46 on gender identity, 20 on gender expression, and 18 on sex characteristics. The lack of protective laws and policies means bias often goes unchecked, allowing a cycle of poverty and unemployment to persist.

One of the most fundamental barriers is education. Outright’s partners report that a lack of schooling is among the biggest reasons LGBTIQ people struggle to find formal employment​.

In Bangladesh, for example, members of the hijra community, a distinct cultural group that identifies as transgender or third gender, often drop out of school due to harassment and exclusion.   An LGBTIQ advocacy organization in Bangladesh shared with Outright the experience of one hijra learner, who told researchers: “I know educational qualifications are compulsory for getting a government job. But when I went to school, the school environment was not congenial… Every day, my classmates used to look down upon me… Sometimes I was assaulted… Then I could not continue my study.” The result is fewer qualifications and opportunities later in life. Similar patterns appear elsewhere: In Mexico, nearly 40% of LGBT students surveyed said they wanted to avoid school due to physical and sexual harassment​.  In Serbia,  a World Bank research team conducted an experimental scenario that found that “feminine” boys (widely perceived as being gay) were at least three times more likely to be refused enrolment in primary schools compared to boys not perceived to be feminine. In Burundi, the Ministry of Education expressly cites “homosexuality” as a justifiable reason for expulsion.

And in the Philippines, even with anti-bullying laws on the books, many LGBTIQ students still skip classes or drop out to escape mistreatment. A lifetime of bias literally pushes LGBTIQ people out of the classroom and, eventually, out of the formal economy.

Even for those with education, basic paperwork can stand in the way of a job. Many trans individuals lack official identification documents that match their identity. For example, in Colombia, where all men must serve in the military, male job applicants must include documentation of their service – a “libreta militar” - with their job application.  Because many trans men lack this documentation, they are shut out of job opportunities.    Across all regions, countless transgender people have IDs that don’t reflect who they are, making every job application an ordeal of outing and potential rejection. The bureaucratic exclusion compounds the economic marginalization.

Once in the workforce, LGBTIQ employees frequently encounter unsafe and hostile workplaces. A central driver of this is stigma – pervasive beliefs that being LGBTIQ somehow makes a person “unfit” as a worker or colleague​.

This prejudice can manifest as open harassment. In Bangladesh, two hijra women, Farah and Sanjana, were hired at a Dhaka garment factory as part of a job placement effort, only to face relentless abuse from coworkers. They endured insults and even a physical attack during their commute when other workers tried to assault them on the company bus​. The factory owner intervened, first assigning the women to travel with senior staff – and when even some of his managers refused, he sent his own car to pick them up so they could commute safely​.

A program coordinator in Dhaka noted that fear of such workplace harassment is a “core reason” many transgender people hesitate to seek company jobs at all​. In Mexico, the dangers can also be extreme: one transgender woman recalled being raped by her supervisor and staying silent to keep her livelihood. “To keep the job, I had to keep my mouth shut… he said no one would believe a faggot like me,” she recounted, underscoring the horrific abuse some LGBTIQ employees endure​. 

These are not isolated incidents. In Colombia’s largest-ever survey of LGBT people, 40% of trans respondents – and roughly a quarter of lesbian, gay, and bisexual respondents – reported being fired or denied jobs due to their identity. In the Philippines, more than half of transgender men and women report workplace discrimination, rates many times higher than those for their cisgender peers​. Yet because of stigma and fear, only about one-third of those who experience workplace harassment ever report it to authorities. The picture is clear: from hiring to daily workplace interactions, LGBTIQ people face an array of biases and threats that deny them decent work and stable incomes.