Northwestern Mutual Receives Ninth Consecutive Score of 100% on Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index Company earns the Equality 100 Award for LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion MILWAUKEE, Dec. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Northwestern Mutual announced today that the company earned a 100% for the ninth consecutive year in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s (HRC) Corporate Equality … [Read more…]
Kristen Chapman, 52, doesn’t know anyone in Virginia. She doesn’t have a job lined up or a home there. But this summer, the Tennessee mother of three will uproot her family from Nashville and move 600 miles away to Richmond, VA, so that her transgender daughter can continue receiving the gender-affirming care that Chapman believes has saved her child’s life.
In March, Tennessee banned gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
“My youngest child cannot get care here legally. I no longer feel welcome here. I no longer feel safe here,” says Chapman, a social worker and artist, who identifies as queer. “I literally feel targeted, like someone painted a big X on our door and we have to get out.”
Chapman is part of a growing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and their families fleeing neighborhoods, cities, and states where they are worried about their safety. Some have faced harassment as anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has spread throughout the country. Others are desperate parents of children whose gender-affirming health care has been outlawed by their state governments. Most are relocating to blue and purple cities and states, where housing costs are often much higher but they feel welcomed.
Since June 5 of this year, more than 525 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in 41 states, creating a new record, according to the Human Rights Campaign. More than 220 of those bills targeted transgender individuals with at least 20 states now banning gender-affirming care. More than 76 bills have become law, more than double last year, according to the HRC.
While there are no official estimates of how many LGBTQ+ people and families are relocating, it’s a growing number, says Anita R. Blue, a Realtor® in Houston and president-elect of the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance. It’s an issue that’s increasingly spilling over into the housing market.
“Housing’s going to suffer,” says Blue. “People don’t want to live or buy a home in a state where they don’t feel safe.”
In 2020, several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Chapman received a three-word email from her daughter. It said, “I am trans.”
What followed was about a year of doctor’s visits, tests, and mental health evaluations before her child, now 15, began receiving puberty blockers.
Chapman explains that her child was suicidal before receiving treatment. Now, if her daughter misses a treatment, she will go through puberty—as a boy.
“If I don’t get her to a state in August where she can receive a shot, then she literally could resume puberty immediately. Her voice could drop, and there’s no fixing that,” says Chapman. “The more she passes as a [cisgender woman], the safer she is. That was our big motivation to move quickly.”
She chose Richmond because she hopes that her husband, whom she is separated from, will be able to transfer his job to one of his company’s offices there to be close to their 15-year-old and 17-year-old autistic daughter. Their oldest is away at college. Chapman started a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for moving costs.
“I’m really angry. But the overwhelming feeling is I’m just heartbroken,” Chapman says through tears. “I’m exhausted, and I’m scared for my family. At this point, my children deserve to feel some peace and stability.”
Dallas-area real estate broker Bob McCranie has helped 27 clients worried about anti-LGBTQ+ harassment and legislation move out of Texas. Most are going to blue states, such as Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Colorado, or even abroad.
Last year, he started FleeTexas.com, which was followed by FleeRedStates.com. The sites help connect homebuyers and sellers to LGBTQ+ real estate agents.
“There’s a migration going on right now,” says McCranie. “We’re trying to get people out of harm’s way and to a place that’s a little bit safer.”
But moving, especially cross-country, takes money.
Those leaving red states might find that home and rental prices, as well as everything else, are much higher in blue states. Transplants are often leaving behind their support networks and essentially starting over.
Callen Jones, a Realtor® with the Dalton Wade Real Estate Group and who is based in Tampa, FL, has seen many people leave Florida due to the state’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws. This spring Jones, who identifies as transgender, helped four people sell their homes. Jones’ clients, who were self-employed or worked remotely, relocated to the Midwest and Northeast.
Last year, Florida made headlines for banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools for kindergarten through third grade. The law, which has since been expanded to higher grades, resulted in a teacher being investigated for showing her fifth-grade class the Disney movie “Strange World,” which has a gay character.
In May, Florida Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis signed into law legislation to restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender minors. The law also allows children who undergo treatment to be placed in the state’s temporary custody.
“A lot of our folks who are openly LGBTQ and their parents are fearful,” says Jones. “Home is so vastly important to everyone, the ability to have a home and feel safe and feel settled. If you don’t feel safe, secure, and affirmed, you’re not going to be your best self.”
Nicole, who did not want to be fully identified, moved from the Fort Worth, TX, area to Denver with her husband and 14-year-old twin boys in mid-November.
One of their twins came out as bisexual in 2019 and then as transgender a year later. He began gender-affirming health care six months later.
In February of last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents of transgender children receiving gender-affirming care. The order was successfully challenged in the courts but is now being appealed. On Sept. 1, it will become illegal for doctors in the state to provide gender-affirming care to those under 18.
“It was urgent that we needed to leave,” says Nicole. “The thought of both of [our kids] being taken from us because we support gender-affirming care was terrifying.”
She was advised to create a “safe” folder for affidavits from people who knew the family and could testify they were good parents. Their children were advised not to answer questions from adults they didn’t know unless Nicole and her husband were present.
“I couldn’t in good conscience stay any longer,” says Nicole.
The family chose Denver, despite not having family or friends there. They had searched online for LGBTQ+-friendly places, and Colorado kept coming up.
Their three-bedroom, two-bathroom house, which they purchased in 2019, took five months to sell. They barely broke even. In November, they moved into a rental house in Denver, which was considerably more expensive.
Nicole, who is a mortgage lender, was able to continue working remotely. Her husband is retired from the Air Force. Most importantly, their son is able to continue with his treatment.
“We didn’t realize how we were living down in Texas until we got up here. This massive weight was lifted, and the fear was gone,” she says. “We feel like we can take a deep breath.”
First comes love, then comes marriage, and then comes house hunting?
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans are increasingly buying homes as they get engaged or married, or form other formalized relationships, and have children, according to a recent report from the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance. The alliance is a national trade group of LGBTQ+ real estate professionals and allies. The report was based on a survey filled out by nearly 400 alliance members in March.
“The LGBTQ+ community’s homeownership journey follows a very traditional cycle,” says Ryan Weyandt, CEO of the alliance. “They start as renters early in their careers and just like everybody else. Relationships, jobs, and advancements in their careers are driving homeownership. Children are also becoming more impactful in buying decisions.”
There are more than 1.2 million same-sex couples in the nation, according to U.S. Census Bureau data included in the report.
More than a third of the surveyed LGBTQ+ first-time buyers, 37.7%, said that a formalized relationship was one of the top three reasons they wanted to become homeowners. For lesbian couples, it was a much stronger motivator, with 58.4% reporting it was one of the main reasons to buy homes.
This is compared with 53.8% of straight survey respondents.
Children were another top reason that members of the LGBTQ+ purchased homes, whether their first or their fourth. It was a motivating factor for nearly 44% of survey respondents. About 29% of LGBTQ+ individuals have children, according to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Where LGBTQ+ people want to live
Cities remained the destination of choice for members of the LGBTQ+ community as they’re just beginning their careers, often as renters. Nearly two-thirds of members of the alliance chose to live in an urban area or central part of the city with gay men more likely to pick these destinations than lesbians or straight individuals.
That’s likely because the social and dating scenes of a prospective area are important when they’re choosing a first place to live. Being in a place with a strong LGBTQ+ presence and good nightlife was also important to many younger members of the community.
However, the community isn’t monolithic. Interestingly, nearly a fifth of lesbians started their professional careers in small towns—compared with almost 5% of gay men and about 6% of straight folks.
“The LGBTQ+ community is everywhere,” says Weyandt.
Nearly half of LGBTQ+ folks bought their first homes in urban areas, compared with about a third of straight people. More than 40% purchased in the suburbs, while roughly 10% bought in small towns or rural areas.
When purchasing a home, the social, dating, and nightlife scenes weren’t top considerations. That might be because many buyers are older, in relationships, and more settled down—and they might not be as interested in partying into the wee hours.
“We value so much of the same things as everyone else,” Erin Morrison, alliance member and a Realtor® in Texas, said in a statement. “We want access to good jobs, affordability, to be near our friends and family, have loving relationships and live in welcoming communities.”
LGBTQ+ Americans still face housing discrimination
A record 520-plus anti-LGBTQ+ bills had been introduced in state legislatures as of late May, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Seventy have been enacted.
In the past year, about 29% of LGBTQ+ people said they had experienced housing discrimination or harassment, according to the Center for American Progress. And about a fifth of alliance members say that discrimination against LGBTQ+ homebuyers is on the rise.
“Discrimination and the fear of it are a pervasive problem,” says Weyandt. “Imagine your LGBTQ+ child looking for a home and having to consider so many aspects to the decision that others might not. It’s not only the home, the neighborhood, and the schools they’re looking at. It’s how will they be welcomed? Will they be welcomed? What if they have children? How will the children be received in the neighborhood, in the school district?”
Transgender buyers might have to sign forms with names that do not reflect their gender identities. Sellers might be reluctant to choose LGBTQ+ buyers. And real estate agents, landlords, and leasing agents might discriminate against members of the community.
This is leading many LGBTQ+ Americans to consider moving out of their communities and states. Some are worried about being harassed or bothered by their neighbors because of their sexual orientations or gender identities.
“The hope is this period of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric are just another blip and a barrier to overcome for the community to be fully accepted,” says Weyandt. “The most important thing we have to remember is that LGBTQ+ people are people. And we have to welcome them for who they are.”
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender home-buyers and renters must pay a premium to live in states, cities and counties that offer legal protection from discrimination.
While it is unlikely that legal protections for LGBT people increase home values, the fact that these jurisdictions are more expensive has a disproportionate impact on LGBT buyers and renters who aspire to live there, Zillow reported.
To identify price differences across regions with and without local legal protections, Zillow analyzed the typical cost of buying a home in states, cities and counties that have laws in place to protect LGBT buyers from housing discrimination. Protections include being evicted, denied housing, or refused the ability to rent or buy housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity. While these premiums pertain to buyers, LGBT renters also feel the effects – given that high home values generally correlate with high rents. The same situation with condos for sale. Fodyo.com provides high quality service to protect your interest.
National housing and employment non-discrimination laws protect classes such as sex, race, age, color, religion, and national origin. The Supreme Court on Monday affirmed job protections for people who identify as LGBT, but explicit protections against housing discrimination do not exist at the federal level, and vary significantly based on local jurisdictions. Currently, only 22 U.S. states and the District of Columbia offer statewide laws explicitly prohibiting housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Typical home values in those jurisdictions with legal protections are about $127,000 higher than home values in places without those laws – about $328,575 compared to $201,462. Many of these jurisdictions also offer the LGBT community legal protections beyond housing, including employment and public accommodation protections. While it’s not the specific legal protections bumping up home values in these states, those who identify as LGBT, among other buyers and renters, are paying more to buy or rent in areas that offer protections through anti-discriminatory policies.
LGBT buyers in Hawaii, Washington, D.C., and California can expect to pay the biggest premium to live in an area with those protections. Home values in Hawaii are about 219% higher than the typical home values in areas with no protections. Washington, D.C., is a close second at 218% higher, followed by California at 187%. Iowa is the only state with explicit protections for LGBT homebuyers where the typical home costs less than in places without protections – 23% less. More than 70% of LGBT buyers report making at least one sacrifice to stay at or below budget, compared to 58% of cisgender heterosexual buyers, according to data gathered for Zillow’s 2019 Consumer Housing Trends Report, and the 2020 edition scheduled to be released later this year. Such sacrifices include buying a home in worse condition, without desired finishes, and smaller than initially planned.
States without anti-discrimination laws for the LGBT community often have cities and counties that do provide legal protections, but those still largely come at a premium. For example, Austin, Texas, has local regulations protecting LGBT homebuyers from housing discrimination. The typical home value in Austin is $401,999 – 90.3% higher than the state overall, and 99.5% higher than the nation in areas without protections.
“In addition to providing legal protections, there are other steps local and state governments can take to create housing markets that are more inclusive and accessible for LGBT people,” said Skylar Olsen, senior principal economist at Zillow. “We know LGBT buyers – especially LGBT buyers of color – are more likely to purchase affordable home types such as condos and townhomes. More local governments should work to allow more of these types of homes, opening up areas and neighborhoods that historically priced out many LGBT buyers. Legal protections for LGBT become more meaningful when people can afford to access them.”
Mike Wheatley is the senior editor at Realty Biz News. Got a real estate related news article you wish to share, contact Mike at [email protected]
LGBTQ+ individuals face considerable financial challenges, from finding affordable housing to getting inclusive healthcare.LGBTQ+ individuals face considerable financial challenges, from finding affordable housing to getting inclusive healthcare.
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Joe Biden’s executive order means it would be illegal for landlords, real estate agents, home sellers, or mortgage lenders to refuse to rent to, sell to, or work with LGBTQ people.
The post How President Biden Plans To End LGBTQ Housing Discrimination appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.