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COMMUNITY
ELECT
Affirmative Aging
W ALT
NICHOLS
Awareness and advocacy are growing for elderly LGBT adults
PORTLAND COMMISSIONER
By AMANDA WALDROUPE
WWW.WAMTNICHOLSFOIlCmrCOUNClL.COM
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Portlands Second Annual Gay and Grey
conference is part of a budding movement
in the Portland metropolitan area to create
services and resources for an ever-growing
population of elderly lesbian, gay, bi and
trans adults.
Gay and Grey, taking place this year on
May 22, was founded in 2009 by ad
vocates for elderly LGBT adults. The —
one-day conference provides free
health consultations, fitness evalua
tions and panels discussing topics on
gay-friendly senior housing options
and other issues. Last years event
attracted approximately 150 people.
Organizers are optimistic the num
ber will double this year.
They also hope the resource fair
will make it less daunting for elderly
LGBT adults to access services that
ultimately make aging a little easier.
An elderly LGBT population is
only recently emerging in society.
According to the 2008 Ameri
can Community Survey, there are
109,194 elderly people over the age
of 60 living in the Portland metro
area, or 15 percent of the population.
No concrete data estimating the
number of LGBT elders in the area
exists, though advocates typically use
a ballpark figure of 10 percent, which
translates to 10,000 LGBT elderly
adults in the Portland area.
“This generation of GLBTQI seniors is a
generation that broke barriers for the rest of
us that came after,” says Vaune Albanese, the
executive director of Friendly House, a social
service agency that is sponsoring Gay and
Grey. “As they have been in the past, they are
our pioneers.”
A lack of education and awareness about
the population exists among service provid
ers. For that reason, advocates say elderly
LGBT adults face increased discrimination,
marginalization, and the fear of possibly be
ing recloseted as they age.
“This population...needs advocacy and
community to rally around,” Albanese says.
Mya Chamberlin is Friendly House’s
director of safety net services, including the
Elder Resource Alliance (ERA), a program
for LGBT seniors that Friendly House in
corporated into its offerings in February. She
says elder adults frequently report lack of
support when accessing services.
“When they have to transition to a
higher level of care or bring in in-home ser
vices, they were forced back into the closet,”
Chamberlin says. “We just encounter people
who won’t access services for fear.”
Aging gay adults are afraid that divulg
ing their sexual orientation or gender iden
tity will result in their services being cut.
“Whether the danger is real or perceived, the
fear is real,” Albanese says.
Elderly LGBT adults are uncomfortable
sharing their sexual orientation and gender
identity with medical providers. Paul Iar-
robino, a program supervisor in Multnomah
County’s department of Aging and Disabil
ity Services, says this anxiety compromises
a sexual reassignment surgery, or raise ques
tions about why an individual is living with
someone of the same sex. “They don’t always
see a senior center as a friendly place,” Iar
robino says.
Elderly LGBT adults also face financial
difficulties not necessarily experienced by
elder heterosexual people. Survivor benefits
from Social Security are not paid to same-
sex partners, and aging adults may
g not have children or other family to
§ provide care.
|
“There are all kinds of financial
| inequities,” says Laurie Young, public
* policy director for the National Gay
ljs and Lesbian Task Force, a national
□ political advocacy organization. “The
opportunity to prepare for retire
ment is much more compromised.
That makes aging well a real chal
lenge for LGBT people.”
A partial reason why * aging
LGBT citizens face discrimination
from their peers is generational,
Albanese says. Elder generations
that grew up during the Great
Depression may not necessarily un
derstand why one group of people
should receive additional services.
Maria Micozzi-Jones, the chair of
Gay and Grey’s planning commit
tee, says part of it is homophobia.
“The biases are much greater among
the cohorts they are living with,”
Micozzi-Jones says.
Another reason why aging can
be agonizing for LGBT adults is because of
the general prejudice society has toward the
process. “Aging is not valued in our culture,
especially in the gay men’s community,” Iar
robino adds.
Micozzi-Jones says the challenges LGBT
seniors face when accessing health and hous
ing services leave them feeling isolated. Her
goal for Gay and Grey is that seniors will
learn in detail what services are available to
them, and feel empowered to seek them out.
“It’s going to be a great learning experi
ence,” says Iarrobino.
Albanese hopes that Gay and Grey will
not be an isolated event. “What we’re hoping
is to create a movement toward creating ac
cess and gay-friendly housing in metropoli
tan Pordand,” he says.
Friendly House, by incorporating ERA
into its programs, now offers a continuity of
services for LGBT elder adults. ERA and
fellow advocates are providing training to
senior service staff. An increased amount of
education and awareness, they say, will en
able staff and facilities to be more sensitive
and culturally competent.
Providence ElderPlace offers health care,
|
“There are all kinds of
fin a n cia l inequities. The
opportunity to prepare for
retirem ent is m uch more
com prom ised. That mokes
o g in g well a real c h a lle n g e
for LGBT people."
- LAURIE YOUNG.
PUBLIC POLICY DIRECTOR
FOR THE NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN
TASK FORCE
elderly adults’ health because it prevents
discussions about sexual health, HIV risk,
hormone therapy and other risk factors.
“They often don’t seek out information
in the traditional settings,” Iarrobino says, or
seek information out at all.
Paperwork seniors are required to com
plete for healthcare and housing services
does not list domestic partnership as a mari
tal status option. Choices given for gender
are still binary, and they do not ask one’s
sexual orientation.
Senior centers can be a problematic
environment for elderly LGBT adults. Re
ceiving baths or other cleaning in the form
of hospice care could reveal the senior had
>> AFFIRMATIVE AGING continues