LGBT retirement issues
Encyclopedia
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. 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."
Across the United States retirement communities catering to LGBT clientele have begun to appear. However, LGBT people living in nursing home
s 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."
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.
The General Accounting Office (as the GAO was then called) identified 1,049 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 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.
individuals. They tend to have less money, worse health and they are much more likely to be alone in comparison to heterosexual people. There are several reasons for this but the main one is discrimination in the form of shunning from family, friends, and/or coworkers.
Gay men and lesbians often make less money or lose their jobs due to their sexual orientation. Often they are passed over for promotions that go to straight people.
Due to the issues at work gays and lesbians get smaller paychecks, which makes it harder to plan for retirement. They also are not able to get the same level of quality healthcare as those in higher positions. This also means smaller pensions to live on later in life. This can affect partners as well since the laws in most states do not support gay marriage or common law living between same sex couples. These partners will not have access to the same benefits when their loved one dies either.
Often the stigma alone of being gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual keeps the elderly out of retirement homes and those that do get in are often shunned and treated with disrespect.
Listings by country
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual, transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
(LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
) and intersex
Intersex
Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...
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
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
marked the start of the modern gay rights movement and increasingly LGBTI people have become more visible and accepted into mainstream cultures. LGBTI elders and retirees are still considered a newer phenomenon creating challenges and opportunities as a range of aging
Ageing
Ageing or aging is the accumulation of changes in a person over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline...
issues are becoming more understood as those who live open lives redefine commonly held beliefs and as retirees newly come out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
of the closet.
LGBTI individuals are less likely to have strong family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
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
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
as well as cultural discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
and harassment
Harassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...
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."
Across the United States retirement communities catering to LGBT clientele have begun to appear. However, LGBT people living in nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
s or assisted living
Assisted living
Assisted living residences or assisted living facilities provide supervision or assistance with activities of daily living ; coordination of services by outside health care providers; and monitoring of resident activities to help to ensure their health, safety, and well-being.Assistance may...
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."
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.
The General Accounting Office (as the GAO was then called) identified 1,049 federal statutory provisions in which marriage rights
Rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United States
According to the United States Government Accountability Office , there are 1,138 statutory provisions in which marital status is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges...
are contingent on marital status
Marital status
A person's marital status indicates whether the person is married. Questions about marital status appear on many polls and forms, including censuses and credit card applications.In the simplest sense, the only possible answers are "single" or "married"...
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
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
status as well as statutory provisions repealed or amended yielding a total of 1,138 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
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
or long-term romantic relationship that is not legally recognized as a marriage.
Aging in society as a member of the LGBT community
There are many problems facing elderly LGBTLGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
individuals. They tend to have less money, worse health and they are much more likely to be alone in comparison to heterosexual people. There are several reasons for this but the main one is discrimination in the form of shunning from family, friends, and/or coworkers.
Gay men and lesbians often make less money or lose their jobs due to their sexual orientation. Often they are passed over for promotions that go to straight people.
Due to the issues at work gays and lesbians get smaller paychecks, which makes it harder to plan for retirement. They also are not able to get the same level of quality healthcare as those in higher positions. This also means smaller pensions to live on later in life. This can affect partners as well since the laws in most states do not support gay marriage or common law living between same sex couples. These partners will not have access to the same benefits when their loved one dies either.
Often the stigma alone of being gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual keeps the elderly out of retirement homes and those that do get in are often shunned and treated with disrespect.
See also
- AARPAARPAARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is the United States-based non-governmental organization and interest group, founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, PhD, a retired educator from California, and based in Washington, D.C. According to its mission statement, it is "a...
- AgeingAgeingAgeing or aging is the accumulation of changes in a person over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline...
- Domestic partnershipDomestic partnershipA domestic partnership is a legal or personal relationship between two individuals who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by marriage nor a civil union...
- Civil unionCivil unionA civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
- Elderly careElderly careElderly care or simply eldercare is the fulfillment of the special needs and requirements that are unique to senior citizens. This broad term encompasses such services as assisted living, adult day care, long term care, nursing homes, hospice care, and In-Home care.-Cultural and geographic...
- GeriatricsGeriatricsGeriatrics is a sub-specialty of internal medicine and family medicine that focuses on health care of elderly people. It aims to promote health by preventing and treating diseases and disabilities in older adults. There is no set age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician, or...
- GerontologyGerontologyGerontology is the study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging...
Listings by country
- Mandatory retirement
- PensionPensionIn general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
- Registered partnership
- Same-sex marriageSame-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
- Social securitySocial securitySocial security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
- Timeline of same-sex marriageTimeline of same-sex marriageThis page contains a timeline of significant events regarding same-sex marriage and legal recognition of same-sex couples worldwide in modern history, followed by a timeline of notable same-sex marriages and unions. Also, events concerning same-sex marriages are listed in bold.-2011:* October 25: ...