LGBTQ+ Well-Being Across Race and Ethnicity

Produced by the HRC Foundation

Recent findings from the HRC Foundation’s 2025 Annual LGBTQ+ Community Survey indicate that LGBTQ+ adults are experiencing financial strain, health challenges, and declines in outness and visibility. These experiences differ significantly across racial and ethnic groups.

Introduction

LGBTQ+ adults are experiencing increasing economic, health, and social pressures. According to the HRC Foundation’s 2025 Annual LGBTQ+ Community Survey, LGBTQ+ respondents are more likely than non-LGBTQ+ respondents to report financial strain, worsening health, and barriers to care. However, these experiences are not uniform. Race and ethnicity influence how LGBTQ+ adults encounter financial insecurity, access health care, and make decisions regarding openness and visibility in daily life.

This analysis examines three dimensions of well-being: economic security, health and health care access, and outness and visibility. The findings confirm broad trends among LGBTQ+ adults, but subgroup analysis is necessary to identify which populations are most affected, in what ways, and where advocacy and public education efforts should be prioritized.

Key Findings

1. Financial strain is especially high among BIPOC LGBTQ+ adults.

More than half of BIPOC LGBTQ+ respondents, 56.5%, report being financially unwell, compared with 47.9% of White LGBTQ+ respondents. Black LGBTQ+ respondents report especially high levels of financial strain, with 66.2% saying they are finding it difficult to get by or just getting by.

2. Health disparities vary across racial and ethnic groups.

The health data do not show a simple BIPOC vs. White pattern. LGBTQ+ Hispanic respondents and LGBTQ+ respondents in the Remaining race/ethnicity category report the highest levels of fair or poor health, while LGBTQ+ White and remaining respondents report the highest levels of worsening health over the past year.

3. Outness and visibility are declining across groups, but most sharply among White LGBTQ+ respondents.

White LGBTQ+ respondents are more likely than BIPOC LGBTQ+ respondents to say they are less out and less visible than they were 12 months ago. At the same time, AANHPI LGBTQ+ respondents are the most likely to say acceptance of LGBTQ+ people has declined.

Financial insecurity is layered by race and ethnicity

Economic strain is prevalent among LGBTQ+ adults, with particularly high rates among BIPOC LGBTQ+ respondents. Over half of BIPOC LGBTQ+ adults (56.5%) report being financially unwell, compared to 47.9% of White LGBTQ+ adults. Black LGBTQ+ respondents report the highest level of financial strain among the identified groups, with 66.2% indicating difficulty in getting by or just getting by. While AANHPI LGBTQ+ adults reported relatively lower financial strain compared to other groups, these findings should be interpreted cautiously, as aggregate AANHPI outcomes often mask substantial within-group economic inequality.

These results expand upon the HRC Foundation’s broader financial wellness analysis, which found that LGBTQ+ adults are more likely than non-LGBTQ+ adults to report deteriorating financial conditions over the past year. Collectively, the findings demonstrate that LGBTQ+ economic insecurity is both widespread and unevenly distributed.

Implication: Understanding financial insecurity among LGBTQ+ adults requires careful consideration of race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic LGBTQ+ adults, in particular, report elevated levels of current financial strain.

Health disparities vary across racial and ethnic groups

LGBTQ+ adults, as a group, are more likely than non-LGBTQ+ adults to report fair or poor health and a decline in health over the past year. However, the racial and ethnic breakdowns reveal that health disparities do not conform to a simple BIPOC versus White pattern. LGBTQ+ Hispanic respondents and those in the other race/ethnicity category report the highest levels of fair or poor health, while LGBTQ+ White and other respondents report the highest levels of worsening health during the past year.

Access to health care also varies by group. Over four in ten White LGBTQ+ respondents (43.0%) report that federal policies have made accessing health care more difficult, compared to 36.3% of BIPOC LGBTQ+ respondents. Among specific groups, LGBTQ+ respondents in the other category report the highest rate of increased difficulty in accessing health care, followed by White and AANHPI LGBTQ+ respondents.

Implication: Aggregating BIPOC groups can obscure important subgroup differences. Public health messaging and advocacy should address the distinct ways LGBTQ+ individuals experience health strain, health decline, and barriers to care.

Declining acceptance is changing how visible LGBTQ+ people feel they can be

Nearly three in ten LGBTQ+ adults report that LGBTQ+ people are less accepted than they were 12 months ago, and many indicate becoming less open or less visible in their daily lives. Racial and ethnic breakdowns reveal that these changes are widespread but not uniform. White LGBTQ+ respondents are most likely to report becoming less out (50.6%) and less visible (55.5%), compared to 43.1% and 44.7% of BIPOC LGBTQ+ respondents, respectively.

AANHPI LGBTQ+ respondents are the most likely to report that LGBTQ+ people are less accepted than a year ago, at 37.7%. Black LGBTQ+ respondents report the lowest perceived decline in acceptance (25.8%), yet experience relatively high reductions in outness and visibility (48.4% and 49.5%). These patterns suggest that decisions regarding openness and visibility are influenced not only by general perceptions of acceptance but also by immediate workplace, health care, school, public space, and community risks.

Implication: Visibility extends beyond personal expression. It is determined by whether LGBTQ+ individuals feel safe, accepted, and supported in the environments where they live, work, learn, and seek care.

Race and ethnicity shape how LGBTQ+ people experience today’s climate

Collectively, these findings indicate that LGBTQ+ adults are experiencing pressures across multiple domains, including financial security, health and access to care, and outness and visibility. However, the impact of these pressures is not uniform. BIPOC LGBTQ+ adults report particularly high levels of financial strain, while patterns related to health and visibility differ more markedly by specific racial and ethnic groups.

The findings also underscore the importance of intersectional data. While a single LGBTQ+ topline can reveal broad disparities, it does not identify which communities experience the greatest economic strain, which groups face the most significant health access barriers, or how different LGBTQ+ populations are adapting their outness and visibility in response to evolving social conditions.

Policies and institutions that advance economic stability, health access, nondiscrimination, and public acceptance are essential to LGBTQ+ well-being. These measures not only protect rights in principle but also determine whether LGBTQ+ individuals can meet basic needs, access care, and live openly and visibly in daily life.

Methodology

Data come from the 2025 Annual LGBTQ+ Community Survey (ALCS), fielded online from September 29 to October 27, 2025, among U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The LGBTQ+ sample was recruited through the Human Rights Campaign Foundation Community Marketing & Insights research panel and community-based organizations, while the non-LGBTQ+ comparison sample was fielded concurrently by PSB Insights using demographic quotas for race, age, geography, education, and gender to improve representativeness. Analyses report weighted descriptive estimates by race and ethnicity, and comparisons between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ adults rely on model-based predicted probabilities. All measures were derived from self-reported survey responses, with additional details on sampling, weighting, quality control, and variable construction available in the full methodology documentation. 

 

The Human Rights Campaign reports on news, events and resources of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation that are of interest to the general public and further our common mission to support the LGBTQ+ community.
Topics:
Communities of Color
Research

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