Students can learn about saving and how to steer through their future finances at “Money Smart: Facts, Figures and being LGBTQA+,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 28.

Mario McCart, a graduate assistant at the Life Center, has been planning this event for a month. He said it covers a little bit of everything when it comes to financial literacy. McCart said generally many minorities lack knowledge about finances.

“Anyone who is at risk should be learning about financial literacy and this program is to specifically help LGBT people realize some of the risk they may have in the working field,” McCart said. “There is a huge inequality gap between LGBT people and their heterosexual counterparts.”

McCart said in a recent article he read about the gap between heterosexual and lesbian women in earning. He said heterosexual women make around 7 percent more than lesbian women.

The Life Center is trying to target many minorities on campus to aid them through some of their future finances, McCart said. McCart said when it comes to the LGBT community he wanted to plan something relatable to the individuals who fit in the group.

“We wanted to look at every letter and bring something to each of them so nobody feels left out,” McCart said.

Job security is often a problem in the LGBT community. McCart said for people who are transgender, they need to save more in an event something happens, such as the loss of medical insurance lack of funds to afford hormone treatments.

“There are places that are not accepting of people’s lifestyles and in Illinois you’re not required a reason on why you are going to be fired,” McCart said. “In some states it was legal to fire someone because they were gay and it didn’t fit under their morality clause.”

A morality clause is a contract, which does not allow people to exhibit certain behaviors they often have in their personal life because it could hinder the company.

Ben Wilburn, the LGBT resource center coordinator, said the event will be about making the LGBT community aware of specific issues or concerns they might to need to have on their radar before going into adulthood.

“If they’re looking for a job and they have to find out if the job has a non-discrimination policy,” Wilburn said. “They would need to see if they have same-sex partner benefits and this event will touch on that.”

The forum will be a refresher course on how important money is and what students can do to be more attentive when it comes to their finances.

The location of “Money Smart,” will be announced via twitter @LGBTQIA_EIU or @EIUlifecenter also on Face book at Literacy and financial education center.

T’Nerra Butler can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]