According to a new Williams Institute study that demographer Gary J. Gates has authored, 2.4 million (29 percent) LGBT adults experienced a time in the last year when they did not have enough money to feed themselves or their familya condition known as "food insecurity."
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 49 million residents (nearly 16 percent) were food-insecure in 2012.
The survey says that LGBT people experience disproportionate levels of food insecurity and higher participation rates in SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), especially those raising children. This is reportedly a risk that persists despite possible differences in demographic characteristics between LGBT and non-LGBT individuals like gender, age, race/ethnicity and educational attainment.
Among the key findings are that:
More than one in five LGB adults aged 18-44 (21 percent)or approximately 1.1 million individualsparticipated in SNAP through receipt of food stamps in the past year;
LGBT adults are 1.7 times more likely than non-LGBT adults to not have had enough money to feed themselves or their family in the past year; and
Same-sex couples raising biological, adopted, or step children under age 18 are 2.1 times more likely than comparable different-sex couples to receive food stamps.
The full report is at williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Food-Insecurity-in-LGBT-Communities.pdf .