Near And Dear To Me.

As I enter my twilight years one of my concerns are Long Term Care facility, how they will care for trans seniors.

Revolutionizing Retirement: How LGBTQ Housing Communities Empower LGBTQ Elders to Live Authentically
OutSFL
By Christiana Lilly
11 January 2024

David Kilmnick knew an LGBTQ retirement community was needed when reaching out to elder facilities for educational programs.

The founder and president of the LGBT Network on Long Island, New York, he recalls a facility telling him “we have none of those here,” referring to LGBTQ people.

“I’m not talking this was 50 years ago or 20 years ago,” he says. “This was like five years ago.”

In September 2021, Kilmnick and his nonprofit opened the doors to The LGBT Network’s LGBT/LGBT Friendly Senior Housing, a 75-unit affordable housing community for LGBTQ+ elders. Here, residents can live out and proud with their partners and participate in programming at the 8,000-square-foot community center.

It’s a part of a growing response to the needs of the community, one where many grew up closeted and discriminated against, but also to see positive changes like marriage equality and a more welcoming society.

“It’s incumbent on us in the LGBT social service field to make sure that we create these safe and inclusive housing facilities so LGBTQ seniors and elders could age gracefully and be out and proud,” Kilmnick says.

I am concerned here in Blue Connecticut but what will it be like to a trans senior living in Florida and having to go in to a Long Term Care (LTC) facilities with all the anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

This community has the same needs as anyone else in their age group, but they also face discrimination and stigma, as well as being less likely to have children or grandchildren who can visit and help.

AARP has a page dedicated to the older LGBTQ community at aarp.org. Additionally, they offer many online tools for all older adults, like a retirement calculator that can help determine how much someone needs to be saving; a social security calculator; and a resource hub for all things Medicare.

With the rise of these specialized communities, they are able to age in place in a safe environment and also have access to services they need.

“It’s really the first generation of LGBTQ+ folks who are for the majority living their lives at some level of outness,” says Sherrill Wayland, the senior director of special initiatives and partnerships at SAGE, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ elders. “As we think about retiring, potentially looking for retirement communities or assisted living, we want to make sure that we can continue being our authentic self and not have to re-closet.”

We are a very, very small community about 0.5 percent of the population so the odds that there will be another trans person in the LTC facility are slim. But it is not just LTC facilities but also all senior programs.

 

I knew of a trans woman who lived in a LTC facility and out of 500 residents she was the only trans person there. She was very depressed and looking for a LGBTQ+ senior community.

In one focus group before opening, a woman shared that when she lost her partner of more than 30 years, she attended a bereavement group where other widows and widowers told her “that’s not the same thing.”

I have heard the same thing, a gay couple who were together for over 30 years when his husband died the grief councilor recommended a bereavement group. But the bereavement group was just like the regular population, when he talked about his spouse others in the group told him to stop pushhing his sex life on them.

The Washington Blade had this article,

New report outlines problems faced by LGBTQ+ nursing home residents
Authors recommend supportive policies, training for nation’s 15,000 facilities
By Lou Chibbaro Jr
January 9, 2024

A recently published academic journal article by two University of Indiana researchers reports on problems faced by LGBTQ+ older adults living in the nation’s nursing homes and recommends actions nursing homes should take to ensure LGBTQ+ residents are treated equitably and without bias.

The article, entitled “Postacute Care and Long-Term Care for LGBTQ+ Older Adults,” was published Nov. 9 in the peer reviewed journal Clinics In Geriatric Medicine. It is co-authored by geriatric physician Jennifer L. Carnahan, a research scientist with the Regenstrief Institute, which is affiliated with Indiana University’s Center for Aging Research and Andrew C. Picket, an elder care researcher and assistant professor at Indiana University’s School of Public Health in Bloomington. Carnahan also serves as an assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

 “Cultivating an inclusive and LGBTQ+ culturally competent nursing home culture means that all staff and clinicians should receive training specific to working with this group and time should be allocated for this to reduce staff burden,” the article states.

In the past I have worked with groups working to bring about change for LGBTQ+ seniors but unfortunately many who I have worked with have retired including myself and the programs seems to have faded way.

“For transgender individuals, the personal care received in nursing homes can be supportive, as intended, or traumatic,” the article states. When nursing home staff provide assistance to transgender persons unable to care for themselves, “such as toileting or bathing, they may become newly aware of a resident’s transgender status,” the article says, adding, “If staff are not prepared for such an unintentional outing and how to react in a supportive manner, they may demonstrate microaggressions.” That type of biased reaction can be psychologically harmful for a transgender resident, the report states.

[…]

“More and more LGBTQ+ older adults are comfortable being out with their providers, while many living in nursing homes fear unwanted disclosure of their sexual orientation or gender identity status,” Carnahan says. “Their autonomy should be respected either way so they can age in an environment where they feel safe, where they feel comfortable and where they are able to live with dignity.”

And that is all I want, “To live with dignity” in my twilight years.