Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination in Housing, Labor and Education

(Social Equity and Race)

This proposed session brings together three papers investigating discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity minorities in the United States with an emphasis on the role of public policy. The papers investigate discrimination in three arenas: labor markets, education and housing markets. One paper takes a unique investigation into under-researched policies: presidential executive orders. Badgett et al. measure the impact of federal orders banning SOGI discrimination among federal government contractors to measure the prevalence of discrimination as well as effectiveness of executive orders to alleviate discrimination in the labor market. Button et al investigate discrimination against SOGI individuals in mortgage markets and quantifies the cost of such discrimination. Quantifying the costs of discrimination guides policymakers who may assess the benefits of policies to alleviate related discrimination. McQuillan investigates a policy issue of rising national prominence: gender expansive educational policies. Understanding the determinants of the adoption of gender-expansive education policies provides a framework for understand the impact and expansion of policies aimed to make educational institutions more inclusive.