LGBT retirement issues

Many retirement issues for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and intersex people are unique from their heterosexual counterparts and these populations often have to take extra steps addressing their employment, health, legal and housing concerns to ensure their needs are met.

In 1969, the Stonewall Riots marked the start of the modern gay rights movement and increasingly LGBTI people have become more visible and accepted into mainstream cultures.cite book |last=Pew Global Attitudes Project |title=Views of a Changing World |url=http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=185 |format=.PDF |year=2003 |month=June |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=The Pew Research Center For The People & The Press | oclc=52547041 |accessdate=2007-07-11] LGBTI elders and retirees are still considered a newer phenomenon creating challenges and opportunities as a range of aging issues are becoming more understood as those who live open lives redefine commonly held beliefs and as retirees newly come out of the closet.

LGBTI individuals are less likely to have strong family support systems in place to have relatives to care for them during aging. They are twice as likely to enter old age living as a single person; and two and a half times more likely to live alone. Because institutionalized homophobia as well as cultural discrimination and harassment still exist, they are less likely to access health care, housing, or social services or when they do find the experience stressful or demeaning.

Joel Ginsberg, executive director of the Gay Lesbian Medical Association, asserts "only by pursuing both strategies, encouraging institutional change and encouraging...and empowering individuals to ask for what they want will we end up with quality care for LGBT people."cite web
last=Cassell
first=Heather
title=LGBT Health Care Movement Gains Momentum
publisher=Bay Area Reporter
date=18 October 2007, Vol. 37 / No. 42
url =http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2331
accessdate=2007-10-20]

Across the United States, retirement communities catering to LGBT clientele have begun to appear. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/realestate/20nation.html?fta=y The New York Times > Real Estate > National Perspectives: Gay Retirement Communities Are Growing in Popularity ] ] However, LGBT people living in nursing homes or assisted living centers "increasingly report that they have been disrespected, shunned or mistreated in ways that range from hurtful to deadly, even leading some to commit suicide." [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/us/09aged.html Aging and Gay, and Facing Prejudice in Twilight - New York Times ] ]

In response, LGBT Aging Centers have opened in several major metropolitan areas with the goal of training long-term care providers about LGBT-specific issues. Legislative solutions are available as well: "California is the only state with a law saying the gay elderly have special needs, like other members of minority groups. A new law encourages training for employees and contractors who work with the elderly and permits state financing of projects like gay senior centers." Twenty states prohibit discrimination in housing and public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation.

[
left|thumb|A_gay senior couple at same-sex marriage rights rally in Massachusetts] The General Accounting Office (as the GAO was then called) identified 1,049 [http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/og97016.pdf General Accounting Office's 1997 report PDF format] federal statutory provisions in which "marriage rights" are contingent on marital status or in which marital status is a factor (married being defined as a male-female couple only). An update was published in 2004 including new statutory provisions involving marital status as well as statutory provisions repealed or amended yielding a total of 1,138 [http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04353r.pdf 2004 updated report of the GAO PDF format] provisions in which marital status is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges. For LGBTI retirees the implications transcend almost every aspect of retirement planning if they are in a same-sex marriage or long-term romantic relationship that is not legally recognized as a marriage.

See also

* AARP
* Ageing
* Domestic partnership
* Civil union
* Elderly care
* Geriatrics
* Gerontology
* Pension
* Mandatory retirement
*
* Registered partnership
* Same-sex marriage
* Social security
* Timeline of same-sex marriage

References

Bibliography

* [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/121206dnbusGayRetirement.30cecc0.html "Gay retirement community is a first"] ; December 11, 2006; By Bob Moos / The Dallas Morning News.
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/17/REGU1QE8SI18.DTL "A WELCOMING PLACE FOR GAY RETIREMENT: Historic hotel becomes Barbary Lane, based on popular 'Tales of the City' series"] ; June 17, 2007; Judy Richter, San Francisco Chronicle
* [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35218 "CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN': L.A. to subsidize 'gay' retirement home, Project in Hollywood said to be 1st in U.S. financed by a city"] ; October 23, 2003, World Net Daily
* [http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gayhousing5oct05,0,2658346.story?coll=la-home-center "Room under the rainbow?: Some residents of a gay-oriented retirement community have worries that adding too many straight neighbors might reopen the closet door."] ; October 5, 2007; By David Colker, Los Angeles Times
* [http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=ddd4c8ea-bc18-4bb0-98c6-e9c348215236&k=69251 "Company plans housing for Vancouver's gay and grey"] ; October 12, 2007; By Randy Shore , CanWest News Service
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/05/wgay105.xml "Gay retirees worried over 'straight influx"'] ; 05/10/2007; By Catherine Elsworth, London Daily Telegraph
* [http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Seniors_320/Retirement_Tips_for_LGBT_Community.shtml "Retirement Tips for LGBT Community"] ; Oct 1, 2007; By The MetLife Mature Market Institute (from report, "Out and Aging: The MetLife Study of Lesbian and Gay Baby Boomers," can be found at: www.maturemarketinstitute.com under "Studies."); www.HealthNewsDigest.com
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/realestate/20nation.html?_r=2&fta=y&pagewanted=all&position=&oref=slogin&oref=slogin "Gay Retirement Communities Are Growing in Popularity"] ; November 20, 2005; By Claire Wilson; New York Times
* [http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2006-07-02-gay-seniors_x.htm "Gay seniors settle into a niche"] ; 7/5/2006; By John Ritter, USA TODAY
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_n737/ai_20139067 "Gay and gray - gay and lesbian retirement communities"] ; July 8, 1997 by Janet Kornblum; The Advocate
* [http://money.aol.com/retire-in-style/senior-living-retirement-trends?photo=11 "Retirement Trends: Hot Senior Communities, Gay Retirement Communities"] ; AOL Money & Finance
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3020-2004May30.html "Gray and Gay? These Communities Want You"] ; By Lee Hockstader; Washington Post; Monday, May 31, 2004; Page A01
* [http://abcnews.go.com/Health/LivingLonger/story?id=1245134&page=1 "Retirees Create Alternative Communities: More Elderly Americans Are Drawn to Communities That Reflect Their Particular Interests"] ; By MARC LALLANILLA; Oct. 26, 2005; ABC News
* [http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/Articles/a2004-03-19-mag-straightanswers.html " No Straight Answers: America’s older gays and lesbians struggle with health care, inheritance, retirement benefits, social services, prejudice, and more"] ; By Randy B. Hecht, May & June 2004; AARP Magazine

External links

* [http://www.gaylesbianretiring.org Gay and Lesbian Association of Retired Persons]
* [http://www.asaging.org/networks/index.cfm?cg=LGAIN Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network]
* [http://www.lgbtagingproject.org/ LGBT Aging Project] (Massachusetts)
* [http://www.aoa.gov Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging]
* [http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=436 Legal Issues for LGBT Caregivers]
* [http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=409 LGBT Caregiving: Frequently Asked Questions]
* [http://www.rainbowtrain.org/ The Rainbow Train]