Michael Arceneaux, in a piece for Ebony, describes how, contrary to popular belief, not all gay people are rich white men living the good life. He uses findings from a report issued by the Williams Institute to draw attention to the nonwhite members of the gay community and the economic constraints they face. Their plight is often overshadowed by their better-off white male peers, who are actually in the minority.
For years now many have complained about the often-linear depiction of gays on the small screen: Well-to-do White men playing largely into a heteronormative narrative. The issue isn't just a matter of inclusion, though. It's about perpetuating a fallacy about the kind of lives gays lead in this country. While there is certainly a segment of the population that are top earners with lots of disposable income — ergo, why they tend to be the most vocal of the bunch — the fact is most gays are working with far meager means.
There's a new report from the Williams Institute that confirms this, noting that members of the LGBT community are more likely than their straight peers to live in poverty. Worse, Blacks, women, and children are especially vulnerable to economic strife.
They explain: "Poverty rates for female same-sex couples and unmarried different-sex couples were higher than those of married different-sex couples."
The study goes on to note that, "While male same-sex couples have lower overall poverty rates than married different-sex couples, male couples were more likely to be poor than married different-sex couples after controlling for other characteristics that influence poverty."
Read Michael Arceneaux's entire piece at Ebony.
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Michael Arceneaux hails from Houston, lives in Harlem and praises Beyoncé’s name wherever he goes. Follow him on Twitter.