Calculating the economic cost of anti-LGBTQ legislation | Business and Financial Issues

On his way to the United States in 2018, Rikki Nathanson heard that secret police were looking for him at his home and office in Zimbabwe. Immediately the transgender activist knew he could not return.

More than four years ago Nathanson was arrested by Zimbabwean police for pointing a gun at them for using a women’s bathroom. She was forced to take off all her clothes to “prove she was a woman”, was thrown in jail and beaten repeatedly, she told Al Jazeera. But when the judge asked the prosecutor how Nathanson had become a “public disorder” – the case he was facing – the case was dropped.

“The arrests and subsequent arrests were extremely painful, humiliating and shameful,” Nathanson said.

Later that year, he filed a lawsuit against the Zimbabwean government for his arrest. But her tragic experiences lasted for months and years. Someone followed him repeatedly, his phone was disconnected and “robbers” broke into his house twice and beat him again, he said.

As a result, while in New York at the 2018 OutRight Action International conference, he decided to seek refuge and give his life at home.

It was not a decision Nathanson made lightly. A hard worker in Zimbabwe, he is well educated and active in the community. But like so many other members of LGBTQ groups in countries with always oppressive and dangerous anti-LGBTQ laws, they know that the only choice they can make is to be persecuted there, to hide or to flee.

Nathanson thinks that in recent years, thousands of LGBTQ people have left Zimbabwe, where homosexuality is a crime and there is no way to change gender on legal status. When they travel, they often take part in arts and crafts that could have gone to a developing country in South Africa.

It is a story that financial groups and economists say governments and businesses can only do better if the global economy is struggling to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 ban.

Some economists estimate that countries lose billions of dollars a year to homosexuality and apartheid laws.

Economic growth

By restricting access to employment, education and medical care – as well as imposing other barriers – anti-LGBTQ laws prevent people from participating in the national economy. This means that apartheid laws are the driving force behind economic growth, destroying the country as a whole.

According to anti-LGBTQ laws and discrimination it is said to be detrimental to the economy as part of the global economic growth (GDP), according to Lee Badgett, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and senior student at the Williams Institute.

The 2018 study by Badgett analyzed economic data in more than 120 countries between 1990 and 2014. The study found that an increase of $ 1,506 per capita GDP is linked to a one-country increase in the Global Acceptance Index, which uses Population Surveys to estimate acceptance of LGBT people.

Using another measure in the 2019 study, Badgett and other researchers found that the additional data on the Global Index on Legal Recognition of Homosexual Orientation, which has eight levels of legal and security, was linked to an increase in real GDP per person at around $ 2,000.

This and other studies use “different types of standards [to] tell the same story … that the economy is shrinking due to homophobia and transphobia, ”said Badgett, who co-authored The Economic Case for LGBT Equality.

According to Human Rights Watch, at least 69 countries have international law prohibiting homosexuality. Most of these countries are in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Nine countries have laws prohibiting gender-based discrimination.

In many countries, the economic consequences of homophobia and transphobia begin at an early age, Badgett told Al Jazeera. Bullying in school because of stigma and discrimination leads to a significant decline in the number of LGBTQ people.

The exclusion of LGBTQ also affects people’s physical and mental health. All of this reduces productivity and the skills needed for economic growth.

Countries that did not vote for LGBTQ people are scrapping what economists call “social capital”, Badgett said, adding that anti-LGBTQ and discrimination laws “take power. [LGBTQ people] can share resources “.

LGBTQ abolition also affects people’s physical, mental health, low productivity and skills needed for economic growth [File: Brian Inganga/AP]

‘Good business’

The LGBTQ inclusion not only benefits governments and the economy, say researchers, but is also good for business.

This is happening in a number of groups, according to Jon Miller, co-founder of Brunswick Group and founder of Open for Business, a coalition of companies promoting LGBTQ justice.

For the people, “performance is good in LGBT communities,” Miller told Al Jazeera. “You get a lot of out of people. They are greatly encouraged [and] they volunteer to work. ”

Meanwhile, companies that integrate LGBTQ with “more intelligent manufacturers, more entrepreneurs, are able to excel in all areas, [and] they can attract the most talented people and keep those talented people “, added Miller.

In a 2019 report, Open for Business found that Kenya loses about $ 1.3bn a year to LGBTQ elections [File: Baz Ratner/Reuters]

In a 2019 report, Open for Business found that Kenya loses about $ 1.3bn a year to LGBTQ elections.

While same-sex relationships remain tense there, Miller said the conflict in another part of Kenya after the story was published changed overnight.

“It started as a result of a moral crisis and went so far as to say, ‘If we want to expand our education in Nairobi, if we want to boost business in this country, then is this oppressive law the right thing to do?’

Even in countries that rely on manufacturing industries, such as mining, or oil and gas, there is a strong LGBTQ intervention, says Miller.

Miller cites Gulf states who are trying to diversify their economies far from oil.

“They are all looking to create their own market share that is highly profitable, professional,” he said. These countries need to think about how to create a “business, creative and creative environment for innovation in order for economic activity to flourish”, he said.

Be prepared to come back

The participating countries should recover from the COVID-19 economic crisis, as well as future risks, the researchers said.

“You can’t completely protect yourself from financial hardship, but all you have to do is try to make sure that when this happens, you will be more confident when the economy can change quickly,” Miller said. “Coalition agencies are able to get their feet back on track and grow back after the financial crisis.”

Economic issues and business integration into LGBTQ are understandable, experts say, but in the end more research needs to be done as most of the oppressive countries do not have sufficient knowledge of LGBTQ areas.

For his part, Rikki Nathanson received protection in the US in 2019. That same year, a Zimbabwean court ruled in favor of a wrongful arrest, giving him $ 400,000 in Zimbabwe (about $ 1,100 at the time).

He says it is hard not to return to his homeland to visit relatives and friends. But in the end, he says, it is a loss to Zimbabwe.