Gay Tax: Same-Sex Couples Get Worse Terms, Rejected More Often for Mortgages

You may have heard of the “Pink Tax,” the consumer phenomenon of women having to pay more for items related to their gender, including personal care items, pads or tampons, or even clothes. But now, a study published Tuesday by a scientific journal has shown evidence of a “gay tax” when it comes to trying to buy and finance a home.

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The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences of the United States (PNAS) shows that a same-sex couple applying for a mortgage get turned down 73.12 percent more than couples with similar credit profiles.

Same-sex couples are also made to pay less favorable rates for loans that are approved, paying an average of between .02-.2 percent more in interest, which quantifies to between US$8.6 million and US$86 million.

Using “massive amounts of US lending data” since 1990, the researchers were able to show quantitatively the level of discrimination that occurs in what is often the most important buy of a person’s life.

Discrimination has been prevalent in the history of lending, most famously in the practice of redlining, which was when banks would refuse to lend to Black Americans in certain neighborhoods to make sure that white neighborhoods remained segregated from Black neighborhoods.

According to a study by National Community Reinvestment Coalition, these discriminatory practices succeeded in preventing Black communities from obtaining wealth and prosperity up to today.