Let’s Face It We Are Getting Old

When the first Pride March happened (and trans people were not included) there were no corporate sponsors, there were not police marching with us, and those that marched knew that they could face repercussions just for marching. Now things have changed… or has it?

For LGBT boomers, a growing concern about elder care
The Alton Telegraph
By JoNel Aleccia and Melissa Bailey,
June 3, 2019

Two years ago, nursing professor Kim Acquaviva asked a group of home-care nurses whether they thought she was going to hell for being a lesbian. It's OK if you do, Acquaviva said, but is the afterlife within your scope of practice?

After Acquaviva's talk, an older nurse announced she would change how she treats LGBT people under her care.

"I still think you're going to hell, but I'm going to stop telling patients that," the nurse told Acquaviva.

Acquaviva, a professor at George Washington University School of Nursing in Washington, raised the example at a panel hosted by Kaiser Health News on inclusive care for LGBT seniors. It was one of many examples of discrimination that these older adults may face as they seek medical care.

LGBT baby boomers, dubbed "the Stonewall Generation," came of age just as the 1969 New York uprising galvanized a push for gay rights. After living through an era of unprecedented social change, they're facing new challenges as they grow old.

"Fifty years after Stonewall, there's a new generation of LGBT elders who never thought they'd get an AARP card," said Nii-Quartelai-Quartey, AARP's senior adviser and national liaison on the issue who also participated in the panel.

By 2030, there will be an estimated 7 million LGBT people in the United States over 50. About 4.7 million of them will need elder care and services, according to SAGE, an advocacy group.

Back then I never thought that I would be an “OUT” trans person, I always thought that I could stop crossdressing if the “right” girl came along. But now I face the possibility of being the only trans person in a long term care (LTC) facility.

‘Stonewall Generation’ Confronts Old Age, Sickness — And Discrimination
Kaiser Health News
By JoNel Aleccia and Melissa Bailey
May 22, 2019

[…]
In a country where most elder care is left to family, many LGBTQ people are estranged from relatives and don’t have that option. Turning to others for care — in assisted living centers, nursing homes or hospice settings — makes them uniquely vulnerable.

“The fear of living in a situation where they can’t advocate for their own care and safety is terrifying,” said Hilary Meyer, chief enterprise and innovation officer for SAGE.

Three-quarters of LGBT people are worried about having adequate family or social supports, according to a nationally representative survey of AARP members released last year.

If you look at the research you will find that what they are really talking about are just lesbians and gays in all the articles on LGBTQ+ seniors we might be mentioned in passing.

Often, those fears are founded, according to results of a forthcoming survey of more than 850 hospice and palliative care providers about LGBT patients and family experiences.

“I think the information we’ve got is actually quite discouraging and quite concerning,” said Gary Stein, a professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University who co-led the project.

Most providers surveyed said LGBT people received discriminatory care, he said. For transgender patients, two-thirds said that was true.
[…]
“For transgender patients, there was lots of discomfort around what to call the person,” Stein said. “A number of people said patients were called ‘it’ instead of a pronoun.”

I know or knew of several trans persons who were in LTC facilities and they were the only ones in the facility, and in one case there were a couple of hundred people in the home.

The state of Connecticut unit on aging is working on a policies of inclusion of all minorities, there has been greater awareness of minorities populations in LTC facilities and it is not just us or lesbians and gays but also religious minorities, race, and national origin. Can you imagine is you are a black trans woman in a Lilly white LTC facilities? Talk about intersectionality!

Policies, policies, policies, what good are they?
All the laws and polices in the world will not help us if we are the only trans people in a nursing home and the LTC facility is not enforcing their polices and you are being harassed not only by the staff but by the other residents.