What do homophobia and transphobia cost our countries? Economist M.V. Lee Badgett asks and answers this question in her new book, The Economic Case for LGBT Equality.

Gain new insight as Dr. Badgett shares the findings from her book and discusses the economic opportunity that arises when we reap the full benefit of LGBT people’s potential contributions.

Bring your own questions. After the presentation, U.S. Embassy Trade and Investment Counselor, Elizabeth Hoffman Franolich will moderate a discussion and Q&A during this 90-minute webinar.

Closed captioning will be available during the webinar.

M. V. Lee Badgett is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and former director of the School of Public Policy at UMass Amherst. She is also a Williams Distinguished Scholar at UCLA’s Williams Institute, where she was a co-founder and the first research director. Professor Badgett has been a consultant, advisor, or speaker on LGBTI issues to the World Bank, Open For Business, UNDP, USAID, IDB, ADB, U.S. State Department, OECD, global businesses, and LGBTI organizations. Her research focuses on the global cost of homophobia and transphobia, economic empowerment of LGBTI people, and LGBTI economic inequality (including wage gaps, employment discrimination, and poverty). Her latest book is The Economic Case for LGBT Equality: Why Fair and Equal Treatment Benefits Us All (Beacon Press, 2020).

Elizabeth Hoffman Franolich arrived in Ottawa in August 2020 as the Trade and Investment/Economic Counselor. In 2020, she received the State Department’s Herbert Salzman Award for Excellence in International Economic Performance for her work in Mexico City where she was the Trade and Investment Counselor.

Prior to Mexico City, she was the Senior Venezuela Desk Officer in the Office of Andean Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Andean Affairs. She has served in Caracas, Venezuela; Islamabad, Pakistan; Bogotá, Colombia; and Lagos, Nigeria.

Prior to joining the State Department in 2006, Elizabeth was Chief of Staff for a New York State Assembly member. A native of Ohio, she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Policy from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Science degree in Geography from the State University of New York at Albany.