Analysis of the Legal Needs of the Low-Income LGBTQ Community

Analysis of the Legal Needs of the Low-Income LGBTQ Community

Stout contributes to first report of its kind in the nation, which provides insight into the civil legal challenges and discrimination faced by low-income members of the LGBT community.

Stout worked with Legal Services NYC to collect data to create the first report of its kind in the nation, which provides insight into the civil legal challenges and discrimination faced by low-income members of the LGBT community.

Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) is a civil legal services provider that fights poverty and seeks racial, social and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers. Its goal for this project was to raise awareness of and generate action to fight poverty in the LGBT community. Seeking to better understand the issues affecting the LGBT community, LSNYC distributed a survey to gather data. More than 300 LGBT people answered the detailed questionnaire, providing information that will better enable LSNYC to advocate on behalf of the LGBT community. In particular, the report “Poverty is an LGBT Issue: An Assessment of the Legal Needs of Low-Income LGBT People” — revealed a variety of legal challenges faced by LGBT people, which are exacerbated by discrimination, harassment, and violence.

Stout contributed to the project by reviewing all the survey responses and putting them into a context that allowed for better data analysis, including standardizing written answers. Stout grouped and normalized data, then summarized and displayed the data in charts and graphs that were used in the final report.