Food insecurity among 2SLGBTQI+ people

Key stats—and gaps

Nationwide food insecurity data that focuses on 2SLGBTQI+ people is lacking.¹ Instead, research on food insecurity often assumes a household with a cisgender, heterosexual nuclear family as the default.¹ This includes research that uses the Canadian Income Survey (CIS), Canada’s main survey for tracking food insecurity. The CIS doesn’t collect any data on gender identity and sexual orientation. So, related inequities that likely drive food insecurity, like queerphobia and transphobia, are poorly understood.

Tellingly, Canada lacks any national food insecurity data that’s specifically about Two-Spirit, trans, non-binary, queer, and intersex people. What we do know from the Canadian Community Health Survey is:

• Among adults aged 18 or more, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people experience more than twice the rates of food insecurity (22%) than heterosexual people (10%).²
• Among people aged 15 to 17, lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth experience food insecurity at a higher rate (22%) than heterosexual youth (19%).²
• Although national data is limited, a study in the Greater Toronto Area shows: Despite making up less than 5% of the population, rates of food insecurity among 2SLGBTQI+ people are at least twice the national rate.¹

“A lot has happened between my childhood and now. Coming out as indigiqueer and being HIV+ damaged a lot of connections I had with family and therefore food.”
— Anonymous³

The consequences

Food insecurity has serious consequences. This includes physical and mental health consequences. Research consistently shows that 2SLGBTQI+ people have worse health outcomes than the general population in Canada.⁴ For example:

• Just 19% of Two-Spirit and Indigenous trans and gender diverse folks rate their mental health as very good or excellent.⁵
• Nearly 1 in 7 bisexual, lesbian, and gay adults rate their overall health as fair or poor, compared to 1 in 10 heterosexual adults.²
• 7 in 10 transgender youth (aged 19 to 25) have had a major depressive episode. In the same age range, the rate is 1 in 15 among the general population.⁶

As well as health consequences, food insecurity breaks down social relationships, and diminishes people’s agency to live with dignity.⁷ In short, food insecurity exacerbates the systemic marginalization of 2SLGBTQI+ people.⁴

Key causes of food insecurity among 2SLGBTQI+ people

Food insecurity among 2SLGBTQI+ people in Canada is primarily driven by poverty, unemployment, housing instability, and discrimination in all its forms, including at workplaces. These factors limit access to stable income and safe environments for getting food. Overlapping forms of discrimination (e.g., racism, ableism) also compound marginalization and deepen people’s vulnerability to food insecurity.¹⁰ Below, we expand on two causes of food insecurity among 2SLGBTQI+ people in Canada.

Poverty

In Canada, food insecurity is a problem of poverty or limited income.¹¹ Food is often the first thing people cut from their budgets to prioritize other basics such as rent.¹² So by the time people can’t afford food, they’re likely already facing problems meeting all their basic needs.⁷

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people generally earn less than heterosexual people.¹³ Results from the 2021 Canadian census also show that transgender and non-binary folks experience much higher poverty rates than cisgender folks:

• Approximately 1 in 8 trans women live below the poverty line, compared to nearly 1 in 13 cis women.¹⁴
• Nearly 1 in 8 trans men live below the poverty line, compared to 1 in 12 cis men.¹⁴
• Non-binary people (21%) experience over double the rates of poverty as cis women and cis men (8% apiece).¹⁴

Employment discrimination

Systemic discrimination in employment also limits the incomes of 2SLGBTQI+ people.¹³ While research focusing on trans, queer, or Two-Spirit earnings is very limited—if available at all—other studies show:

• In general, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in Canada earn less than their heterosexual peers (wage gap estimates vary between studies).¹³
• In Canada’s public sector:
  • 1 in 7 2SLGBTQI+ employees report being harassed at work, compared to 1 in 10 cis, straight employees.¹⁶
  • 1 in 10 2SLGBTQI+ employees report experiencing discrimination at work due to their identity, compared to 1 in 14 cis, straight employees.¹⁶
  • 1 in 8 trans people in a study in Ontario reported being fired for being trans. A further 1 in 7 believed they were fired because they were trans.¹⁷

Some solutions

In Canada, federal governments have long neglected the food security needs of 2SLGBTQI+ people. There’s much work that the government can and must do.

Research repeatedly shows that increasing people’s incomes can significantly reduce food insecurity in Canada.¹¹ This is especially true for groups who are most affected by poverty, like 2SLGBTQI+ people. So, improving federal income programs is essential.

Yet, most federal income programs require recipients to file their taxes. That means having appropriate government-issued identity documents. That’s why the federal government must adequately fund existing programs that support gender-diverse people to get gender-affirming identity documents.¹⁹

The government must also set targets to reduce food insecurity—and specifically apply these targets to 2SLGBTQI+ people, not just nationally.

Last but definitely not least, we call on the government to improve data on food insecurity and poverty among 2SLGBTQI+ people. This work must be done in collaboration with 2SLGBTQI+ people and organizations. All government-funded research on food insecurity and poverty must:

• Include questions on sex assigned at birth, sexual orientation, and gender identity (using best practices to collect this sensitive information).⁴
• Oversample 2SLGBTQI+ people—that is, select greater numbers of 2SLGBTQI+ participants to ensure that the amount of data collected is sufficient. This will ensure that the samples are nationally representative and can facilitate intersectional analyses.⁴
• Expand ideas of the household beyond the cisgender, heterosexual nuclear family.¹

References

1. Gibb, J. K., Williams, S., Mikelsteins, K., Charles, J., McKinnon, L., Beach, L., McKerracher, L., & Fields, J. (2024). Queering food security research: A critical analysis of 2SLGBTQ+ people’s experiences of food insecurity in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Science & Medicine, 345, 116709.
2. Government of Canada. (2022, June 6). Pan-Canadian Health Inequalities Data Tool. A Joint Initiative of the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Pan-Canadian Public Health Network, Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Health Inequalities Data Tool.
3. Purdy, C. (2023). Remembering our Past to Influence the Future: A Photovoice Project on Access to Food with Indigenous Peoples Living with HIV/AIDS in Mi’kma’ki [Master’s thesis, Mount Saint Vincent University], p. 72.
4. Standing Committee on Health. (2019). The Health of LGBTQIA2 Communities in Canada. Report of the Standing Committee on Health. House of Commons of Canada.
5. Merasty, C., Gareau, F., Jackson, R., Masching, R., & Dopler, S. (2021). Health and Well-Being Among Indigenous Trans, Two-Spirit and Non-binary people. Trans PULSE Canada.
6. Veale, J. F., Watson, R. J., Peter, T., & Saewyc, E. M. (2017). Mental health disparities among Canadian transgender youth. The Journal of Adolescent Health, 60(1), 44–49.
7. Community Food Centres Canada. (2023). Sounding the Alarm: The Need to Invest in Working-Age Single Adults.
8. Research to Identify Policy Options to Reduce Food Insecurity (PROOF). (n.d.). What are the implications of food insecurity for health and health care? PROOF. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
9. Henry, L., Ellis, D., Ellis, S., Fleck, M., Migdol, S., Rodriguez, N., Delgado, V., Esmonde, S., Islam, I., Kazaoka, K., Sun, W., & Tajallipour, P. (2023). Food insecurity among LGBTQIA+ college students in North Texas: Meaning, experiences, and recommendations for inclusive solutions. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 12(2), Article 2, p. 126.
10. Hou, S., White, M., Ng, E., Kelleher, S., Gao, M., & Joy, P. (2024). Intersectional analysis of food insecurity for 2S/LGBTQIA+ communities in Canada and implications for dietetic practice. Journal of Critical Dietetics, 7(2), Article 2.
11. Research to Identify Policy Options to Reduce Food Insecurity (PROOF). (2022, October 13). Food insecurity: A problem of inadequate income, not solved by food. PROOF.
12. St-Germain, A.-A. F., & Tarasuk, V. (2018). Prioritization of the essentials in the spending patterns of Canadian households experiencing food insecurity. Public Health Nutrition, 21(11), 2065–2078.
13. Waite, S., Ecker, J., & Ross, L. E. (2019). A systematic review and thematic synthesis of Canada’s LGBTQ2S+ employment, labour market and earnings literature. PLOS One, 14(10), e0223372.
14. Statistics Canada. (2022, November 9). Disaggregated trends in poverty from the 2021 Census of Population. Statistics Canada.
15. Wilson, B. D. M., Lee Badgett, M. V., & Gomez, A.-G. H. (2020). “WE’RE STILL HUNGRY”: Lived Experiences with Food Insecurity and Food Programs Among LGBTQ People, p. 10. Williams Institute, School of Law, UCLA.
16. Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat & Statistics Canada. (2024, September 23). 2022 Public Service Employee Survey results by theme for the Public Service by Question 122. Do you identify as 2SLGBTQIA+? Government of Canada.
17. Bauer, G., & Scheim, A. I. (2015). Transgender People in Ontario, Canada: Statistics from the Trans PULSE Project to Inform Human Rights Policy, p. 11. Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario.
18. Goforth, M., Verhaeghe, A. V., & Yaghoubpour, S. (2023). Lead with Pride: Best Practices for Advancing 2SLGBTQIA+ Leadership, p. 17. Pride at Work Canada.
19. Johnstone, F., & Lachance, L. (2021). Ottawa 2SLGBTQ+Service Needs, Gaps and Recommendations: Final Report. Wisdom2Action Consulting.
20. University of Toronto. (2024, April 1). Almost half of queer people in GTA experienced food insecurity during pandemic, survey finds. Department of Health and Society, University of Toronto.