LGBT Aging and Their Health Care Needs
Introduction
The changing demographics of aging population in many countries especially in United States is one of the most important aspect of modern history. One of the main issues in the aging services is the non-existent Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) specific service programs. The LGBT people who spend their lives in supporting their families and create productive contributions to the communities may have difficulties in their elder lives. Aside from the non-LGBT elder problems, there are LGBT-specific elder problems such as discrimination, abuse and impoverishment.
There are also specific obstacles in the aging LGBT people such as homophobia, sexphobia and collision on ageism. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is a non-profit organization, first exposed the problems in aging services of the LGBT elders in 2000. The issue becomes a national attention since there is a rapid aging population. The changes in the society in the modern times could also affect the increasing population of LGTB elders such as State government acceptance of LGBT marriage. Living alone may be their only solution to their aging services issues although the society should take consideration for their rights since they also constitute the nation’s population.
The Issue
One of the main problems for the LGBT elder issues is there are only a few studies about their conditions on the society. There are almost 1.5 million LGBT elders with age 65 and higher in the United States as of 2010. The number could be doubled to 3 million in 2030 due to rapid aging population. Aside from their large population, the problem with the LGBT elders is that they are also having a large quantity of HIV cases which could have a great impact on their elderly life (NGLTFF, n.d.). It has only been recently that studies on the necessities and experiences of the older LGBT community have been pondered on.
According to limited research, LGBT elders are more likely to live alone than non-LGBT elders. These could lead the LGBT elders to be vulnerable to health problems such as malnutrition, depression and substance abuse. They also have the tendency to hide their gender identity in most of the elder service providers due to the pressure of discrimination which could cause them to have poor access to health care.
It is important that the LGBT community receive their necessities without being discriminated by other people. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force pointed out that most of the older LGBT people have no proper access to health care services, housing services, and financial and family security. These cases are attributed to ongoing discrimination of their community as well as racism, ageism, heterosexism or transphobia. The inequalities they are experiencing results to reduced incomes and sometimes they even tend to not avail the benefits they are entitled to and just pursue their own independence. They often chose this path in order to avoid continuous discrimination when availing these services.
Obstacles and Challenges
As they age, the LGBT elders face several challenges in their life. These challenges brought about by discrimination and racism includes housing, economic issues, supportive services and health and wellness (Grant, 2010).
As mentioned before, LGBT elders do not have proper access to health care, reasonable housing and other social services which are necessary for their lives. This is due to the established heterosexism. These elders instead of immersing themselves to the community tend to isolate themselves to these services. The established federal programs for American elders cannot be applied in the same way to the LGBT elders. This can be correlated to issues of homophobia as well as discrimination. The federal programs treat same-sex couples and married heterosexual couples differently. Heterosexual couples can receive their social security benefits for widows and widowers when death comes. However, this is not the same case for same-sex life partners since they are not allowed access to these benefits. This case results to inaccessible $124 million worth of benefits that are supposedly for LGBT elders. For housing protection, Medicaid regulations offer this service to heterosexual couples. On the other hand, LGBT elders are not offered protection of their homes and assets when either one of the couple enters a home for the aged or nursing facility. Even basic rights of hospital visitation are denied for same-sex partners (SAGE, 2009).
Another obstacle for the LGBT elders is they do not receive family support the same way the heterosexual people receives it. LGBT elders are not only not well-served. They are also understudied. Only a few data are gathered by governmental and academic researchers since they failed to include questions pertaining to sexual orientation or gender identity when it comes to the aged community. The lack of empirical demographic data regarding the LGBT elders results to lack of understanding to the majority of their needs for their lifestyle. The exclusion of LGBT elders to federal programs and laws have resulted to unequal rights when accessing their necessities (NGLTFF, n.d.).
Viable Solution
In order to overcome these obstacles and challenges, regulations, policy changes and new law proposals have been made for millions of LGBT elders. Some of these laws are currently being debated. Policymakers have been working on these issues in order to overcome racism and discrimination. LGBT specialized organizations for aged community have been established to provide services for them. Some of these established groups include the Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders (SAGE), Gay and lesbian Outreach to Elders and Pride Senior Network. The Task Force LGBT Aging Initiative has also sponsored researches and projects for the improvement for this elderly community. However, there are still limitations for these solutions since some of these programs are not fully available to all parts of the country.
Conclusion
The changing demography of aging society also accompanies the rapid increase in the population of the LGBT elders. The issue is about their specific needs and cases of discrimination due to homophobia and gender related ageism which is not relatively given attention by the society. The LGBT elders are also a major part of the population and their health care needs must be secured and provided with additional and minor aging services. Some of the LGBT organizations are educating many elderly health care services about the specific needs of the LGBT elders. The acceptance of the society to these kinds of gender should also be applied to the aging health care providers.
References
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation [NGLTFF]. (n.d.). Challenges facing LGBT elders. Retrieved from http://www.thetaskforce.org/issues/aging/challenges
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation [NGLTFF]. (n.d.). Aging. Retrieved from http://www.thetaskforce.org/issues/aging
Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues. (2004). Aging in Equity: LGBT Elders in America. Retrieved from http://www.lgbtfunders.org/files/aginginequity.pdf
Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders [SAGE]. (2009). It’s About Time: LGBT Aging in a Changing World. Retrieved from http://forge-forward.org/wp-content/docs/SAGE_Conference-Findings.pdf
Grant, J.M. (2010). Outing Age 2010. Retrieved from http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/reports/reports/outingage_final.pdf
