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Unfortunately, it doesn’t always get easier for queer adults. “Most of us in the queer community has gravitated towards high cost metropolitan areas because they are the most accepting and progressive,” says Jennifer Dazols, a financial planner in San Francisco. Living in pricier places can be a challenge for long term affordability and queer individuals often face a long list of extra costs that many cis-het people don’t have to think about. “The LGBT community has high medical costs in areas such as transgender health care, cost for HIV/AIDS treatment, and fertility treatment,” she says.
“As a group, we are less likely to be married or have kids, which are often typical milestones that prompt people to get serious about their money,” says Rae. “Without these or guidance from help family members, many in the queer community ignore their finances for way to long.”
“The LGBT community often struggles with a safety net which stems from not having family support, not having children who can take care of them, or being cut off from generational wealth.”
Analysis
Besides the issue of queer financial literacy, this article raises a good point: people get serious about their finances when they reach different life milestones. This article mentioned specifically that LGBTQ+ people lead lives outside of the traditional heterosexual model of marrying relatively young, having kids, and having the choice of moving out of cities with higher living expenses. This makes me interested in the possibility of creating a more inclusive way for everyone to naturally learn finances throughout their life. Queer people aren’t the only ones with nontraditional family structures (and I have a hunch that as the younger generation gets older that we will see less and less of the traditional family structure). Queer people have so many added expenses. This article highlights the very accurate point that queer people are masters at community organization and tend to flock to safe queer spaces for resources. Queer people are fighting to stay financially stable within a societal financial expectation that does not take into consideration the needs of queer people.
