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2024 was an interesting yr for me for lots of causes. I obtained my actual property dealer’s license, and I left the nice and cozy cocoon of Coldwell Banker D’Ann Harper, the place I had first joined the trade in 2017 as the primary overtly transgender actual property skilled in Texas, and began my very own brokerage, Jewel Actual Property.
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As a result of it looks as if daily there may be one other assault on the transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary (collectively referred to as TGX) neighborhood and our rights, I’ve acquired a whole lot of emails, texts and calls to verify I’m OK. Please know I’m.
As I am going about my day, I don’t personally expertise hate from common of us out in the neighborhood. Positive, some folks could glare at me as I stand over 6 toes in heels, however nobody calls me out, yells at me or has yanked me from a rest room.
However this isn’t nearly me. I concern that too many actual property professionals assume solely the TGX neighborhood is below assault. Though it’s true that I, and the 0.6 % of TGX Individuals who’re merely attempting to reside our lives, have change into cultural and political lightning rods, the assaults on us are additionally impacting all within the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. We’re all involved about what is happening at this time.
Influence on LGBTQ+ actual property professionals
As you may think about, these are annoying occasions for members of the Alliance, together with the almost 25 % who’re allies.
Clearly, we’ve got TGX members who want our assist. We even have TGX associates and shoppers, together with these households with a TGX baby, attempting to determine if they need to basically change into political refugees and flee for extra welcoming states and communities. The identical holds true for a lot of nervous LGBTQ+ folks outdoors of the TGX neighborhood.
We’re additionally speaking to our youthful members who, for the primary time of their lives, are dealing with uncertainty and questioning if the progress we made can or might be reversed. Many have solely identified marriage equality, the flexibility to have kids and a possibility to succeed in school and work, like anybody else. These younger individuals are scared.
We’re deeply involved that, regardless of our hopes of residing in a welcoming society, there are those that will strive to remove our bigger LGBTQ+ wins, whereas they demonize the TGX neighborhood. We are able to’t let that occur, and we hope the individuals who shared their constructive views of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood with GLADD earlier final yr in its “Accelerating Acceptance 2024” report will rise up and communicate out.
That is what the report confirmed:
- A 91 % supermajority of non-LGBTQ Individuals agree that LGBTQ+ folks ought to have the liberty to reside their lives and never be discriminated in opposition to.
- An 84 % supermajority of non-LGBTQ Individuals assist equal rights for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
- 76 % of non-LGBTQ+ adults are snug having a transgender and/or nonbinary particular person at their place of worship.
- 75 % of non-LGBTQ+ adults are snug studying a member of the family is homosexual, lesbian or bisexual.
Why this issues to you
You could be questioning what any of this has to do with you, the true property skilled. Enable me to say that it has all the things to do with you.
First, the Alliance estimates conservatively that 150,000 Realtors have an LGBTQ+ baby. All of us need our society to welcome your baby and permit them a pathway to pleasure and prosperity, together with homeownership. It gained’t occur if we stand on the sidelines.
Subsequent are the a whole lot of hundreds of actual property professionals who love and assist a relative, pal and/or colleague who identifies as a part of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. We want you — our allies — to grasp our issues and stand by us.
The ultimate group is the most important. It’s everybody who makes a residing working in and round this actual property trade. Every of us is accountable for supporting each particular person’s proper to an actual property shopping for and promoting expertise, free from discrimination. This consists of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
LGBTQ+ homebuying: On the rise
We have gotten a extra seen and very important a part of the true property market. In accordance with Zillow’s 2024 Purchaser Housing Traits Report, 11 % of homebuyers in 2024 recognized as LGBTQ+, a bounce from 7 % in 2019. This can be a large quantity. To place it in perspective, it’s the similar because the variety of single males who just lately bought a house, in response to NAR.
The U.S. Census Bureau stories 1.2 million same-sex {couples} reside within the U.S. and same-sex marriages have elevated by 70 % because the 2015 legalization of same-sex marriage. On the similar time, UCLA’s Williams Institute famous that 18 % of LGBTQ+ folks and 18 % of married same-sex {couples} have kids. These are our shoppers, our members and our associates.
Amid progress, challenges nonetheless stay
Regardless of this progress, discrimination stays a harsh actuality for a lot of. Almost 30 % of LGBTQ+ people have confronted harassment or discrimination in housing settings prior to now yr, in response to the Heart for American Progress.
Moreover, the Alliance’s 2024-member survey discovered that 27.1 % of respondents imagine discrimination in opposition to LGBTQ+ potential homebuyers has elevated over the previous three years. This elevated from 21 % a yr in the past and 17.9 % in 2022.
For older LGBTQ+ adults, the challenges may be much more extreme. AARP discovered that 45 % of LGBTQ+ adults 45 and over concern age-based discrimination at work. That is an apparent obstacle to monetary safety and the potential for homeownership.
And, as an essential reminder, in response to an LGBTQ+ Actual Property Alliance survey, our members imagine that actual property professionals stay a number one offender of the place discrimination is seen to LGBTQ+ shoppers throughout the shopping for and promoting course of.
Main the cost
Whereas I’ve shared some stats and numbers in regards to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, I’m actually speaking about folks constructing their futures, dreaming of their first dwelling, and households searching for a spot to develop. LGBTQ+ individuals are human beings, plain and easy. Like all Individuals, I and all LGBTQ+ folks deserve the correct to thrive, not simply exist.
The LGBTQ+ Actual Property Alliance will proceed to steer the cost, however we are able to’t do it alone. It takes all of us to maintain constructing an trade that’s really inclusive. By advocating for honest housing, educating ourselves and treating each former, present or future shopper with respect, we can assist extra folks obtain the American dream of homeownership.
Jamie Zapata is a Realtor and LGBTQ+ advocate based mostly in San Antonio, Texas, the place she makes a speciality of serving the wants of a various shopper base. Join together with her on Fb.
