House Financial Services Subcommittee Hearing on Discrimination Against LGBTQ+ in Lending and Housing

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing this week on the extent and effects of discrimination against persons who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) when seeking housing or credit in the United States. A recording of the hearing has been made available online.

Testimony by Alphonso David, President of the Human Rights Campaign, Harper Jean Tobin, Director of Policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality, and others painted a bleak picture of the economic insecurity confronting LGBTQ+ communities. Their testimony attested to the correlation of lower household incomes to lower utilization of basic banking products, such as checking and savings accounts, LGBTQ+ communities face economic insecurity to a greater degree than their non-LGBTQ+ peers. Witnesses testified that factors contributing to this economic insecurity include lack of universal protection against housing discrimination, lack of equal access to benefits for same-sex partners, and lack of family support.…

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