LGBTQ seniors fear renewed discrimination in long-term care

[left-of-center2012]

Improving the quality of life for (gay) seniors nearing the end of life is the next frontier for LGBTQ activists. In some long-term care facilities, staff are trained and vigilant in protecting the rights of sexual minorities. In others, ignorance can lead to discrimination.

If you are in your mid-60s or older, you remember when it was a crime to be gay in Canada. (Homosexual acts between two consenting adults were decriminalized in 1969.) You remember when being openly gay could keep you from getting a job. Holding hands or kissing in public? You would never think of such a thing.

Now, as an increasing number of LGBTQ seniors require long-term care, some discover that the old days are back. Staff in nursing homes lack training for special needs. Some residents may harbor intolerances from earlier times. Circumstance may place a lesbian in the same room as a fundamentalist Christian. And for some, dementia may unleash prejudices that had long been suppressed.

For LGBTQ seniors, “social isolation can lead to a greater need for care and a greater need for services,” according to SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders, a U.S.-based organization that advocates for LGBTQ seniors) chief executive Michael Adams. His organization estimates LGBTQ seniors are twice as likely to be single and four times as likely to be childless as their straight counterparts, placing them at greater risk of isolation and depression. Going into care can lead to increased discrimination, he adds, because the people least likely to know and be comfortable around LGBTQ people are older straight people.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-lgbtq-seniors-fear-renewed-discrimination-in-long-term-care/

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Yet another example of GLBT discrimination that flys under the radar.

Sadly, many LGBT people don't even think about this, much less plan for it. Frankly, in some ways, it is new territory. But it is another reminder of the crushing heterosexist power paradigm so many non-gay privileged people enjoy!