Let’s Face It, We Are All Getting Old

And it sure beats the alternative.

As we age at sometime in our life we will need senior care, whether it is a senior center, over 55 communities, home-care, or long tern care facilities and we need to make sure that they know our special care we need and are accepting of us.

Nurses study the needs of transgender senior citizens
Medicalxpress
By Christine Phelan Kueter, University of Virginia
January 7, 2020

Of the 1.5 million Americans who identify as transgender, roughly 217,000—about 14—are older than age 65. According to a 2011 report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 97 percent transitioned (claimed their preferred gender identity that differed from their sex at birth) at age 55 or older.

Sometimes called "Generation Silent," many transgender senior citizens—like LGBTQ seniors more generally—are particularly vulnerable at the end of their lives, and sometimes conceal their status with care providers out of fear of being mistreated, according to University of Virginia nursing professor and scholar Cathy Campbell. Without a concerted effort to prevent such discrimination, these groups may experience gaps in care, unchecked pain associated with their illness or even outright abandonment by clinicians.
[…]
As frontline caregivers, nurses are particularly well-positioned advocates for these individuals. Campbell, with nurse and Ph.D. student Lauren Catlett, recently wrote a case study examining the unique social and spiritual needs of a transgender woman named Carmelita who, at age 60, was dying of esophageal cancer. The study, which offers an intensely personal glimpse into the life of a transgender senior, was just published in the Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care Nursing.

Here in Connecticut we are working to help educate caregivers in the needs of our community. The state department on Aging & Disability Services is working to ensure proper and respectful care for us and I am on its the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program committee on inclusive care.

Also Connecticut Community Care has a program to train healthcare providers to the needs of the LGBTQ community.

"I'm sick. I'm dying. I need you," these patients say. What they really want to know is: "Can I be safe with you?"

When my parents were still alive I used to do what I called “sanitize” my house when they came over, I hide all my trans stuff and clothes. Seniors are now doing that when they have a home healthcare provider come over to their house, their partner of 30 years becomes “a close friend” and all of their photos of them together get hidden.

If I have to go into a LTC facility I wonder how will I be treated. Crossdressers wonder will I be able to dress in a LTC facility? Sadly I know of one crossdresser who stopped dressing in a LTC and became very transphobic to hide his secret.

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Also in healthcare news a federal court has banned the military from expelling HIV positive military personnel.

Federal Appeals court rules Trump can’t discharge ervicemembers just for being HIV-positive
The judges wrote, "This ban is outmoded and at odds with current science. Such obsolete understandings cannot justify a ban."
LGBTQ Nation
By Daniel Villarreal Friday,
January 10, 2020

The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling saying that the Trump Administration cannot discharge members of the Air Force just because they’re HIV-positive.

The decision prevents two HIV-positive Air Force members, identified in the court case as “Richard Roe” and “Victor Voe” to protect their anonymity, from being discharged. Now they may stay in the military while their case against the military’s ban on HIV-positive servicemembers proceeds.
[…]
However, the judge ruled that the Air Force violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because it discharged the soldiers before actually sending them to CENTCOM to get officially rejected. In doing so, the Air Force violated pre-existing military protocols because members of the Air Force Physical Evaluation Board recommended Roe and Voe for discharge without actually evaluating either man’s physical fitness or ability to complete service duties.