poverty is a queer issue.
The imminent gutting of our meager safety net will have horrifying impacts, especially for gay and trans folks.
Queering the Burbs is a distillation of pop culture, politics and queerness published twice weekly by Joe Erbentraut. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing (many posts are free!), liking or sharing this piece, or buying me a coffee. Order Joe’s new zine, Issue #01, here.
This economy is officially freaking me out, y’all.
If you know me well, you already know I regularly use words like “manifestation” and “abundance mindset” but it’s truly hard to feel all that optimistic right now.
The Nasdaq just had its worst day since 2022. The unemployment rate is rising as mass layoffs rapidly ripple through the federal government and major private employers as well. Federal workers are getting fired just to turn around and see their very own conservative family members applauding the news. Very wealthy folks like Mark Cuban are warning of a recession. And eggs—as well as just about everything else—are still expensive, but our president wants us to “shut up” about that, even though he previously promised to fix it.
Anecdotally, I’ve lost count of the number of my friends who are either unemployed thanks to layoffs in recent months or remain dramatically underemployed after being laid off during the height of the pandemic. And this, of course, is all happening at the same time the current leaders of our federal government is pushing a Christian nationalist agenda that is leading to everything from the planned deportation of a pro-Palestine college student (who is here legally) to Iowa legislators moving to remove trans and nonbinary people from the state’s civil rights laws, opening the door to trans folks being fired from their jobs or evicted from their homes just for being trans.
It all feels very bad and I fear it’ll soon get worse. Yes, of course the blatantly anti-queer and anti-trans agenda and all its legislative repercussions are all horrifying, but I’m also terrified by how these hateful actions could be compounded by the economic harm this administration seems dead set on inflicting on everyone except the most wealthy Americans. This economic harm, it seems clear to me, will also have a pronounced impact on queer and especially trans people.
First there’s the matter of what the Republicans in Congress will do with the federal budget. Experts are saying that cuts to the Medicaid program will almost certainly be a part of Congress’s efforts to meet the level of cuts that the Trump White House is calling for. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, aka food stamps) also appears to be heading for drastic cuts, all in an effort to protect tax cuts for the richest 0.1% of Americans. Just these two programs alone make a dramatic impact on the lives of low-income and disabled Americans and no one is overstating the problem when they point out that the gutting of these programs will cost lives.
Also caught in the crosshairs of these massive federal funding cuts are many dedicated professionals working in areas of the nonprofit sector whose clients rely on these programs. In the state of Illinois alone, $1.88 billion in federal grant money is already being held up for nonprofit organizations. Most of these organizations do not have the sort of cash reserves that would allow them to wait for that money, so don’t be surprised if you start seeing more and more of your friends who work in nonprofits looking for new work.
As I’m sure you guessed, a lot of the people directly impacted by all or some of the above will be queer or trans people. Many queer and trans people are drawn to nonprofit work, both for issues directly connected to our community and those that are not. Research has shown that LGBTQ+ people are more likely than straight folks to experience food insecurity and to utilize federal programs like SNAP. Queer and trans people are more likely than straight people to experience being unhoused in their lifetime. Queer and trans people are also more likely than than straight, cis peers to receive Medicaid and to experience poverty more broadly.
There is a great deal of variability within the queer and trans community, too. According to researchers, cis gay men experience the lowest rate of poverty, while cis bisexual women and trans people experience the highest average poverty rate—29.4%, as of 2021. To be even more specific, an estimated four in 10 Black trans adults are living in poverty, as are nearly half of Latine trans adults.
Despite all of this, I don’t often hear too many queer leaders talking about how so many people within our community are just one missed paycheck or medical bill away from financial ruin. Of course, there are plenty of other matters to be talking about right now—and we should be talking about them. But it’s also becoming increasingly clear how urgent of a need it is for queer folks to speak out and build coalitions to fight the economic warfare that is being carried out against all but the very richest Americans right now.
So yes, we as a community must push back when especially our trans friends and family are being targeted by hate, such as a Texas bill that would make identifying as trans a jailable offense. We should also be alarmed that Trump just shared a Nazi-era anti-LGBTQ+ symbol on his Truth Social account. But we also need to be fighting back like hell against the proposed federal cuts that could force some of our most vulnerable community members onto the streets or worse.
I was so happy to see the hundreds of my neighbors who showed up for a protest in downtown Geneva this past weekend, in honor of International Women’s Day. We need more of that energy going forward because calling our legislators alone isn’t doing the trick. We simply cannot comply with this—any of it. We can build a better world. We have no other choice.
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SONG OF THE RIGHT-NOW
Sometimes when I feel down, like I do today, there’s nothing else I want to do than listen to The Cranberries. Something about Dolores O’Riordan’s unmatched vocals just does it for me every time, especially when the weather is starting to get so nice like it is right now. Here’s a personal favorite video of mine, showing the band playing “Dreams” during a sold-out show at the massive Bercy Arena in Paris in 1999. The energy in the room is completely bonkers and this clip gives me the chills every time. Not a cell phone in sight, as the kids say.
I want more, impossible to ignore
Impossible to ignore
And they'll come true
Impossible not to do
Possible not to do
P.S. Do you miss the serotonin hit of the Scholastic Book Fair? I’ve got good news: I’ll be participating in the Book Fair & Brews event at Hearth & Hammer on Sunday, March 23 (from 12-5 p.m.) along with 35+ other local authors. I’ll be popping up with the iconic Annie Hex and offering three new Queering the Burbs stickers (!) available for sale for the very first time, along with my zine and a few other bits of merch.