[UPDATED] Report: LGBTI+ exclusion can cost region up to US$4b

The exclusion of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) community in the English-speaking Caribbean can cost up to US$4.2 billion or up to 5.7 per cent of its collective GDP. This was the major conclusion of a study called The Economic Case for LGBT+ Inclusion in the Caribbean, done by Open for Business, a coalition of global companies.

The report, which was launched on Wednesday, is the first of its kind in the Caribbean and the largest LGBT+ data set in the region. The data was collected via survey from 2,167 LGBT+ people in Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The report also encompasses data from interviews with 21 business leaders and employees and surveys of 1,430 prospective tourists.

Principal author Phil Crehan said the study quantified the cost of LGBT+ exclusion through measuring challenges in family, education, health, employment, housing, financial services, violence and justice, LGBT+ brain drain, occupational segregation, tourism and economic recovery.

The report said tourism in the entire Caribbean is diminished by anti-LGBT+ stigma, at a cost of between US$423 million and up to US$689 million, or 0.57-0.93 per cent of its regional GDP.

“The challenges that LGBT+ people in the Caribbean confront daily can be stark: state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia are prevalent, as is social stigma. As just two examples, nine of the 12 focus countries criminalise same-sex intimate acts, and none of them allows a change of sex or gender marker on state identification.”

It stated that 18 per cent of travellers, both straight and LGBT+, would not visit the region, predominantly because of anti-LGBT+ laws and stigma. Crehan said tourists wanted to be able to go out into the community but were afraid to, due to fear of being exposed to humiliation and stigma during ID checks, as well as being concerned about travelling as same-sex couples. Inversely, data also showed a significantly stronger likelihood of tourists visiting a country after it adopts pro-LGBT+ policies.

It said the LGBT+ skilled workers migrate and stay in more open societies, leading to lost human capital, productivity and output, as well as reduced competitiveness.

“By also focusing on the LGBT+ Caribbean diaspora, Open For Business has found that those who leave are more likely to be economically productive than those who stay. For this diaspora, migration is driven by discriminatory laws and negative attitudes, which also act as dis-incentives to return. This depletes the productivity and competitiveness of the Caribbean, showing an LGBT+ brain drain.”

The report said analysis showed that there was a strong relationship between the rights of LGBT+ people, GDP, and gross national income (GNI) per capita.

“Globally, there is a strong correlation between the rights of LGBT+ people and economic growth. Open For Business has found a similar correlation specific to the Caribbean, in addition to measures of LGBT+ acceptance and economic growth. This aligns with global findings that suggest the legal and social inclusion of LGBT+ people likely influences and helps overall economic growth, and is bolstered by our new quantitative data showing that LGBT+ inclusion likely leads to stronger human capital outcomes and stronger economic output.

It said countries that decriminalise same-sex acts likely benefit from increased labour productivity, because of decreased labour market discrimination.

“LGBT+ people in non-criminalised environments are more likely to avoid occupational segregation, avoid workplace harassment and stay in their workplaces longer, all with associated higher productivity.”

British High Commissioner to TT Harriet Cross said it was not a surprise that discrimination affects economies.

“If governments want to progress they should look at making more progress with inclusion of the queer community. If decision-makers cannot be convinced by human rights arguments, maybe showing them the economics will help.”

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson said while the Caribbean is an attractive destination for millions of visitors, “archaic laws and discriminatory attitudes, often the legacy of colonialism, continue to oppress LGBT+ populations and turn off would-be visitors. In most of the 12 countries, LGBT+ people continue to be discriminated against and criminalised for who they are and who they love. All this comes at a real and significant cost for local economies, communities, and the people.”

CAISO: Sex and Gender Justice director Dr Angelique Nixon said the most important part of inclusion is to ensure that local and regional communities and organisations are included in making sure it works.

“It is important for us to ground our work and our efforts in terms of economic inclusion in an intersectional analysis, to acknowledge that issues related to LGBTI exclusion are impacted by issues of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and larger colonial and post-colonial structures that still impact our society.”

Open for Business trustee Liam Rezende said in speaking with a mixture of business leaders and civil society organisation, it was inspiring to note there was an understanding of LGBT+ challenges in the workplace, as well as articulation of how LGBT+ inclusion contributes to better business outcomes.

“LGBT+ people experience occupational segregation, where they are over-represented in some sectors and under-represented in other sectors, not driven by talent but by stigma, biases and stereotypes of employers. The impacts are wage gaps, loss of labour output, and less talent, productivity and innovation being available in the workplace. When people can bring their whole selves to work, it contributes to innovation, productivity and longer, more fulfilling tenures in jobs. We hope that by highlighting business imperatives as well as moral imperatives, it will act as a catalyst for change.”

Virgin Atlantic Chief Commercial Officer Juha Järvinen said the Caribbean is one of the biggest leisure destinations and one of the biggest holiday destinations the airline flies to globally, but it is one of the least inclusive.

“Tourism plays a vital role in the economies of many Caribbean countries, which have felt a particularly harsh impact after the global slowdown due to covid19, and to support the region’s economic recovery in the future, it will be essential for the destinations to attract the widest possible demographic of travellers, including those who identify themselves as LGBT+ and allies of the community.”

Regional activists were pleased with the study and said they were hopeful of the impact it would have in interacting with governments. They cautioned however that tourism could not be the saviour of the LGBT+ community in the Caribbean.

Founder and executive director of the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality Kenita Placide said her organisation would be analysng the data to see how attitudes on the ground towards LGBT+ people in Caribbean countries are connected to international perception. She said it was important to note that the laws in the countries which criminalised homosexuality criminalised an act and not people. She said the report added a layer to the cases being brought against discriminatory laws around the region.

United Caribbean Trans executive director Alexus D’Marco said the data set would be useful in dealing with governments who insisted there were no LGBT people in their communities. She said the report also assisted with the visibility of LGBT+ people, including transgender people.

United Belize Advocacy Movement executive director Caleb Orozco said the production of the report put Open for Business in a position to engage with people in power on a trans-national basis. He said based on the experience in Belize, where two judgements on cases involving LGBT+ people have been handed down, the government has not made changes to legislation, so regional organisations could not be complacent that data had been gathered. He said the report did not consider the many SMEs which existed in the region, as opposed to bigger businesses.

With respect to TT, Nixon said many changes had been made but there was more work to be done.

“CAISO and other LGBTI organisations have co-created a shared policy agenda which we have sent to the Government and various decision makers. We continue pushing and advocating for legislative protections. Even with decriminalisation in TT, we are still dealing with legal discrimination because of the exclusion of sexual orientation in the Equal Opportunity Act. CAISO has had to figure out ways to support our communities despite government lack of political will.

“Governments can be conservative in the local environment while saying yes to tourism dollars. Tourism is not our saviour but it continues to be presented as the only model of development. We need much more diverse and stronger local and regional investments and linkages across the region. Depending on external and foreign investments has created the economic dependencies that we are in right now.”

Speaker of the House of Representatives in Belize Valerie Woods said the report presented an opportunity to bring the discussion around LGBT+ people out into the open.

“The private sector will listen up when dollars and cents are put in front of them, especially as tourism is the breadbasket of the region. Hopefully the report will shake up business leaders and governments, especially in small countries that have to be even more resilient now. The report has underscored what LGBT+ people know and live, and as an ally it is my responsibility to amplify their voices.”

The release of the report comes a day after a group of regional NGOs and churches expressed disgust at the flying of the Pride Flag by the US Embassy.

The report can be found at https://open-for-business.org/reports and the presentation can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJv2wdHQAI4/.

This story was originally published with the title "Major study: LGBTI+ exclusion can cost region up to US$4b" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

The exclusion of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) community in the English-speaking Caribbean can cost up to US$4.2 billion, or 5.7 per cent of its collective GDP.

This was the major conclusion of a study called The Economic Case for LGBT+ Inclusion in the Caribbean, done by Open for Business, a coalition of global companies.

The report, which was launched on Wednesday, is the first of its kind in the Caribbean.

The data was collected from over 2,167 LGBT+ people in Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The report also encompasses data from interviews with 21 business leaders and employees and surveys of 1,430 prospective tourists.

The results of the report focus on not only economic loss but the brain drain and loss of productivity which results from LGBTI+ exclusion. It noted that where LGBT+ people were accepted, there was greater economic growth, increased labour productivity, fewer challenges in the school environment and less violence against LGBT+ people.