Watch: Zachary Quinto reveals the price of LGBT discrimination

Hollywood actor Zachary Quinto reveals the impact of the exclusion of LGBT people on society in a video released on international Human Rights Day (10 December) by the UN’s Free & Equal campaign.

The campaign says that it’s not just LGBT people who pay the price. “We all do. Every LGBT child thrown out of their home and forced to miss out on education is a loss for society. Every LGBT worker denied their rights is a lost opportunity to build a fairer and more productive economy.

“These losses are entirely self-inflicted. With different laws and policies in place and a different mind-set, we could and would achieve a more Free & Equal world – that is more prosperous too!”

Charles Radcliffe, Chief of Global Issues at the UN Human Rights Office, explained in a piece for Huffington Post, that, “In study after study, rates of poverty, food insecurity and depression have been found to be far higher in the LGBT community than in the public at large.”

“A US study found gay and lesbian youth are four times more likely to contemplate or attempt suicide, compared with the general population – trans youth are ten times more likely,” he said.

Radcliffe also noted that, according to a pilot study conducted for the World Bank last year, discrimination against LGBT people in India could be costing that country’s economy up to $32 billion a year in lost economic output.

The openly gay Quinto, who narrates the video, is known for his roles in American Horror Story and Star Trek.

Watch the video below.