A new report out today from the Movement Advancement Project and a coalition of partners details the lives of children living in LGBT families of color. Among the findings of the report:
LGBT families are more racially and ethnically diverse than families headed by married heterosexual couples. Of same-sex couples with children, 41% are people of color, compared to 34% of married different-sex couples with children.
LGBT families of color face greater poverty. For example, 32% of children raised by black same-sex couples live in poverty, compared to 13% of children raised by black married different-sex couples and 7% of children raised by white married different-sex couples.
Lisbeth Melendez Rivera, executive director of UNID@S, the national Latin@ LGBT human rights organization, commented, “In addition to racial/ethnic stereotypes and discrimination, LGBT families of color also face invisibility within the broader communities to which they belong and may have difficulty accessing appropriate services. For instance, LGBT organizations are often based in LGBT neighborhoods, but many Latina/o LGBT families do not live in these areas. On the other hand, Latina/o organizations may not have created safe spaces for LGBT families.”
The common mainstream media image of LGBT families, however, is that of white families, particularly white parents. But the LGBT community itself is frequently guilty of assuming whiteness. Just recently, I was sent an LGBT-inclusive book about starting families that earnestly informed readers to “consider [adopting] a child that may be biracial or African American”—as if the prospective parents themselves could not be biracial or African American. A more inclusive way to phrase it would have been, “Consider adopting a child that may have a different ethnic or racial heritage than you or your partner/spouse.”
We have a diverse community, in many different ways, and we will be stronger as a whole if we remember that.
The new report is part of a series drawn from the All Children Matter project, which I first wrote about last October. This latest report was produced by The National Black Justice Coalition, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance, UNID@S, the Fighting Injustice to Reach Equality (FIRE) initiative, the Family Equality Council, the Movement Advancement Project, and the Center for American Progress.