GRAY QUEERS ASSOCIATION's Page

Although the number of LGBT older adults is unknown, it’s clear that many have experienced a lifetime of marginalization, hostility, prejudice, and discrimination that will continue as they age, especially in the areas of housing, health care, the legal system, and long term care.

Elderly LGBT people living in nursing homes or assisted-living centers or receiving home care, increasingly report that they have been disrespected, shunned or mistreated in ways that range from hurtful to deadly, even leading some to commit suicide.

The most common reaction, in a generation accustomed to being in the closet, is a retreat back to the invisibility that was necessary for most of their lives, when homosexuality was considered both a crime and a mental illness. A partner is identified as a brother. No pictures or gay-themed books are left around.

LGBT seniors face other challenges too.

They are twice as likely to live alone; half as likely to have life partners or significant others; half as likely to have no close relatives to call for help; and four times less likely to have children to help them. The needs and challenges facing the current generation of LGBT seniors differ from their heterosexual counterparts in profound ways. To date, the issues, needs and aspirations of the aging LGBT generation have been under-served and under-addressed.

One of those unique challenges is living with HIV/AIDS.

Persons who are HIV positive are living longer but along with a host of unexpected medical conditions which challenge the prevailing view of AIDS as a manageable, chronic disease. For the first time in modern history, a generation of openly LGBT people are becoming seniors. Yet the size, needs and goals of this cohort are unclear; aging has never been discussed openly.