The United Nations’ Free and Equal campaign has exposed just how much LGBTI exclusion really costs.

The video, narrated by openly gay actor Zachary Quinto, highlights the cost of discrimination against LGBTI people and recognises the importance of new laws and effective public education and training. It cites, among other things, a World Bank study that concludes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity could cost an economy the size of India’s $32 billion a year.
“The cost of homophobia and transphobia is simply colossal,” says Quinto in the video.

Charles Radcliffe, a senior human rights advisor for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, debuted the video, noting: “Discrimination hurts people. It hurts companies. It hurts entire countries.”

James Heintz, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said that anti-LGBT discrimination lowers productivity and increases health care costs because of higher rates of stress, depression and suicide among affected groups: “There’s an intrinsic value to respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of all people, including those in the LGBT community, regardless of the economic cost." Read more via Washington Blade