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Last Updated 8/18/22
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, HRC Foundation has been actively engaged in research to monitor and understand the impact of the pandemic on the physical, mental, and financial well-being of the LGBTQ+ community throughout the United States.
At the beginning of the pandemic, HRC Foundation released a brief in March 2020 highlighting the potentially elevated risk for COVID-19 faced by LGBTQ+ Americans — along with many communities around the globe — who will face unique challenges due to economic and health care situations.
“The Lives and Livelihoods of Many in the LGBTQ Community are at Risk Amidst COVID-19 Crisis” released in March 2020, found that an estimated 40% of employed LGBTQ+ adults were working in restaurants and food service, K-12 and higher education, or hospitals and retail - industries significantly impacted by the pandemic.
Additionally, LGBTQ+ people and families were more likely than the general population to live in poverty and lack access to adequate medical care, paid medical leave, and basic necessities. As a result, LGBTQ+ people were hypothesized to be at a greater risk of negative economic consequences associated with the virus.
Building upon that research, HRC partnered with PSB Insights to track the economic impact of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ+ community throughout the first year of the pandemic.
Using polling data from thousands of U.S. adults, HRC released 5 issue briefs throughout 2020 on the disparate economic impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ+ adults, finding that LGBTQ+ adults, particularly BIPOC LGBTQ+ adults and transgender adults, were more likely than the general population to have experienced a cut in work hours, and to have become unemployed as a result of the pandemic:
As some states and municipalities across the country have begun to institute policies for reopening their economies during Summer 2020, significant attention must be paid to communities who are most vulnerable and living at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities. As people continue to go back to work, LGBTQ+ people will continue to face elevated health risks associated with the virus, as they are more likely to have compromised respiratory and immune systems.
Additional research from HRC and PSB Insights published in August 2020 "COVID-19 Continues To Adversely Impact LGBTQ+ People While Initial Phases Of Reopening Create New Economic Problems," found that the negative economic consequences of the pandemic were persisting longer for LGBTQ+ adults than their cisgender and straight peers.
This brief provides additional confirmation of what has long been known: the most vulnerable communities are being hit hardest by the pandemic, even in the reopened economy.
In 2021, HRC launched a new study, in conjunction with Community Marketing Insights (CMI), with efforts funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Approximately 1,700 LGBTQ+ adults were enrolled and surveyed up to three times (baseline/July 2021; wave 2/February 2022; wave 3/May 2022) in order to capture the changing economic and health impacts of the pandemic on the lives and well-being of LGBTQ+ adult. The survey findings revelead that LGBTQ+ adults were significantly more likely than the general population to have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with a supermajority (79%) reporting they had received a COVID-19 booster vaccination, as well as being significantly more likely to have received at least one booster shot. However, LGBTQ+ adults may have been more likely to get COVID-19 compared to all adults in the United States.
For the first time, our research presents data on concerns with the vaccines among people who undergo hormone replacement therapy or take medication for the treatment or prevention of HIV. Most notably, Black and Latine LGBTQ+ adults have expressed some of the highest rates of concern with how the vaccines may interact with their medication for treating or preventing HIV.
On vaccination rates, the data shows that over nine in ten, or 93%, of respondents are fully vaccinated, defined as receiving both doses of a two-dose vaccine (85%) or one dose of the single-dose vaccine (8%). Furthermore:
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