How LGBTQIA+ Housing Protections Are at Risk
- Maryana Boatenreiter
- Jun 25
- 2 min read
As we honor Pride, the unfortunate truth is that it’s becoming even more dangerous to be out in Tennessee — especially for our friends on the streets. National data show us that LGBTQIA+ youth and adults are much more likely to experience homelessness and discrimination.
Recent state legislation and the federal proposal to eliminate housing discrimination protections are making normal living as a queer or trans person in Tennessee more difficult and dangerous.
State Attacks on Gender Affirming Care and Public Spaces
Tennessee has a history of rhetoric and legislation that erases and criminalizes both LGBTQIA+ people and people experiencing homelessness. In the latest session, legislators continued that history with:
SB0676/HB0754, which requires healthcare providers to submit detailed information about the gender-affirming care they offer to trans and intersex people in Tennessee. Creating a database of health data invades privacy in an unprecedented way and makes it riskier to provide and receive gender affirming care in the state.
HB0571/SB0468, which requires places like domestic violence shelters, prisons, and public schools to assign shared spaces by a person’s sex determined at birth. This means that the state will not allow public spaces to recognize gender identity, which makes it easier to control and punish LGBTQIA+ people for simply using public spaces freely.
Federal Discrimination Protections at Risk
When young people come out or are outed, they often experience rejection, abuse, and abandonment at home and school. National Coalition for the Homeless data show us that 40% of young people experiencing homelessness are LGBTQIA+ — and up to 700,000 of the 1.4 million unhoused young people aren’t accompanied by an adult.
LGBTQIA+ adults are 26% more likely to experience homelessness than the overall population, and Black and Indigenous LGBTQIA+ people experience homelessness at an alarmingly higher rate of 50% compared to 4% of the overall population.
Many of the temporary shelter options for unhoused people are dangerous for LGBTQIA+ people as they experience discrimination, assault, and are denied access (see figure 2).
To make matters worse, on April 28, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a proposal that would destroy existing protections that ensure LGBTQIA+ have access to critical housing and homelessness resources.
For Open Table Nashville, Pride is about celebrating our LGBTQIA+ neighbors while also recognizing that our homelessness outreach, advocacy, and education is made better when we center communities most at risk of discrimination and who have the most trouble accessing already limited housing resources.
We’re committed to addressing the discrimination that prevents our queer and trans neighbors from accessing safe housing, and we know our communitie
s thrive when children are included and comfortable at home. Pride reminds us of the joy in our communities and also the work that’s still ahead.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness shares five ways to get involved in defending the Equal Access Rule both locally and nationally.
