My friend, Stuart Milk, threw me a savory bone a couple months ago the opportunity to participate in a forum on The Economics of Equality in Milan, Italy. As much as I wanted to attend, I ended up declining. I had a frightening mid-flight panic attack several years ago. I’m now comfortable flying anywhere east of the Mississippi, but the prospect of a nine-hour transcontinental flight proved too intimidating at least for now.
But I gave to some thought to what I might say about The Economics of Equality on a panel of people from all over the world wearing headphones. It boiled down to this:
The importance of economic significance of equality for LGBT people is quantifiable on several levels. Portrayals of affluent DINCs (Dual-Income-No-Children) abound on television and other media, but recent studies show that LGBT people earn lower wages and face higher rates of joblessness and poverty than the general population. We also experience a much higher incidence of job-related harassment and discrimination. The situation for transgender workers is alarming, with 90 percent reporting some form of mistreatment on the job.
Recall that it’s legal to fire someone because of their perceived sexual or gender orientation in most states, including Florida. We are often denied access to spousal health care benefits. And we lack important federal economic safeguards like the ability to file joint tax returns, transfer property upon death and pass on Social Security survivor benefits.
In an election cycle focused on jobs, jobs, jobs, it’s senseless to deny the impact of these and other quantifiable economic factors on the LGBT community. But that tells only part of the story.
In college I learned about the Abraham Maslow, the brilliant psychologist who believed that human needs are hierarchical in nature and that higher needs will go unsatisfied if lower needs are unmet. He ranked them this way, from lowest to highest: physiological needs like food, water and sleep; safety needs like good health and a secure home; love and belonging needs like friendship, family and sexual intimacy; esteem needs like achievement, confidence and the respect of others; and finally self-actualization needs that include morality, creativity and spontaneity.
Life and learning have taught me the truth of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I bet the same applies for most in the LGBT community.
As a kid I was a good student from a nurturing family environment, and I thrived. But when I discovered my sexual inclinations as a teenager, I learned that I was vulnerable. Despite having most of my physical and emotional needs met, I felt unsafe. I distanced myself from others, began abusing alcohol and other recreational drugs, and drifted from one meaningless job to another, never fully engaged. I was languishing between Maslow’s second and third levels, feeling unsafe and unloved.
When I came out in my late 20s everything changed. I learned that the person I truly am could be loved and respected. And as the real me downloaded, so did a healthy dose of ambition. I finished law school, set up practice and started a newspaper that now owns property and employs a dozen people with benefits.
Sociopolitical culture and economic systems have a huge impact on where people find themselves in Maslow’s hierarchy. A society that treats people equally and respectfully offers each one a head start. And it provides a boost up those higher levels of esteem and self-actualization, where real productivity and fulfillment occur.
But as long as governments tolerate inequality, disrespect and discrimination, too many will languish at the lower levels of human potential. In that, we all suffer. And that’s the real The Economic Impact of Equality.
