The United Nations searched the galaxy to find the right person to give voice to its Free & Equal campaign, which seeks to combat anti-LGBT discrimination worldwide.
Fittingly, the campaign enlisted on out actor Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, Heroes) to narrate a video released today that lays bare the true cost of homophobia and transphobia. As illustrated statistics flash across the screen, Quinto illuminates the staggering economic and social impact that anti-LGBT discrimination can have on entire nations.
Those sobering statistics include the fact that 40 percent of homeless youth in the U.S. identify as LGBT or queer, and that trans youth are nearly 10 times more likely to have attempted suicide than the cisgender population, and that one in five LGBT people reported experiencing workplace discrimination in the past year.
"For the individuals in question, these are personal tragedies," Quinto says in the four-minute video. "For the wider community they represent an enormous waste of human potential, of talent, of creativity and productivity that weighs heavily on society and the economy."
The video "challenges the myth that the impact of LGBT discrimination is small, or marginal, or confined to only a small part of the community," according to a statement from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, which previously released a Bollywood-themed video as part of its Free & Equal campaign for LGBT equality.
Watch the video below.
