Federal student loan restrictions will disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ adults

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LGBTQIA college students having a discussion on campus. LGBTQ+ people are more likely to have student loans and experience economic insecurity, poverty, and disabilities.

LGBTQ+ people are more likely to have student loans and experience economic insecurity, poverty, and disabilities.

LGBTQ+ people are more likely to have student loans and experience economic insecurity, poverty, and disabilities, and Donald Trump's federal student loan restrictions are expected to disproportionately impact them.

More than one-third (35 percent) of LGBTQ+ adults ages 18 to 40 — an estimated 2.9 million — held more than $93.2 billion in federal student loans at the beginning of the Biden Administration, according to a new report from the Williams Institute and the Point Foundation, including over half (51 percent) of transgender adults, 36 percent of cisgender LBQ women, and 28 percent of cisgender GBQ men.

Through loan forgiveness, new repayment plans, the expansion of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF), and relief for students with disabilities, the Biden administration approved over $183 billion in student debt relief for more than five million borrowers. Assuming that LGBTQ+ adults received the benefits equally, an estimated 11.6 percent of queer adults with student loans — about 336,000 — benefited from Biden’s programs.

“Student loans have been an important bridge out of poverty and towards independence for many people," Jorge Valenica, Executive Director and CEO of the Point Foundation, said in a statement. “LGBTQ+ individuals have been less likely to rely on family support for meeting the costs of higher education, making federal student loans all the more critical.”

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Now, the Trump Administration is pushing for changes that would disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ borrowers. This includes ending income-driven repayment plans, as outlined in Project 2025, and replacing them with one that "takes less account of borrowers’ finances and imposes no cap on interest," the report states.

Trump has also signed an executive order ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, and is expected to sign one attempting to completely shut down the Department of Education, though he can't legally do so.

“The proposed restrictions on student loans will particularly affect the nearly one-quarter of LGBTQ adults employed in the public or nonprofit sectors, which qualify for the Public Student Loan Forgiveness program,” said lead author Brad Sears, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute. “A recent executive order could potentially disqualify anyone working for an organization involved in gender-affirming care, or possibly those serving transgender individuals more broadly, from the PSLF program.”

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