LGBT Challenges Ahead

The Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 ruling in favor of marriage equality, bringing into law the “fundamental right to marry” for same-sex couples across the United States was a landmark decision. The LGBT community and its allies had spent decades fighting for it and many feared it would never come.

Marriage equality supporters spent Pride weekend rejoicing. But the road to full equality remains long, and there are still many serious issues facing the LGBT community. The issues—violence, employment discrimination, poverty and health care—can be addressed now that marriage equality has been achieved.

Lesbian, gay and transgender people, especially those of color, experience violence at disproportionately high rates compared to heterosexuals. According to the FBI, bias against sexual orientation and gender identity accounted for more than 21% of hate crimes reported in 2013, with sexuality the second most common single-bias category following race. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs found that while transgender survivors and victims represented only 19% of anti-LGBT violence reported to the organization, transgender women of color accounted for 50% of homicide victims. Seven transgender women of color were murdered in the United States during January and February (2015) alone, which is nearly a murder a week.

A 2013 Pew Research Center survey found that 21% of the LGBT adults surveyed said their employer treated them unfairly because of their sexuality or gender identity. Another report, authored the National Black Justice Coalition and other groups, found that nearly 50% of black LGBT people have experienced employment discrimination. Rates are significantly higher for transgender workers – some 90% of trans people have reported experiencing on-the-job harassment or mistreatment, while 47% said they were fired, not hired or denied a promotion because of their gender identity.

While 22 states have passed laws making job discrimination due to sexual orientation illegal – 19 also include gender identity – LGBT workers still lack federal protection. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, has been introduced in nearly every Congress since 1994, but the hotly contested federal bill didn’t make any headway until 2012, when the Senate for the first time passed the legislation. Still, it failed to make it to the president’s desk.

Research shows that anti-LGBT discrimination has harmful effects on LGBT workers’ economic wellbeing, leading to high rates of unemployment, homelessness, poor health and food insecurity. Pew found that LGBT workers are more likely to earn less annually compared to the general U.S. population. And the transgender discrimination survey found that trans respondents are nearly four times more likely to earn below $10,000 a year than the average American. A 2009 Williams Institute report also found that same-sex couples are two times more likely to live in poverty that different-sex couples, while single LGB adults are 1.2 times more likely to be poor than their straight counterparts.

Social and systematic discrimination, as well as inadequate health care access, contribute to health disparities for the LGBT community. According the Fenway Institute, LGBT people are more likely that straight people to report unmet health needs and have difficulty accessing care and obtaining insurance, when leads to higher rates of disease, chronic illness, drug use, mental illness and obesity among the population. These disparities are exacerbated for the transgender community. The Transgender Law Center found that, in the private market, the pervasiveness of gender identity discrimination in insurance, denial of insurance coverage and transgender-related health care exclusions keep transgender and gender non-conforming people from accessing medically necessary care such as mental health services, surgery and hormone therapy.

Aging in the LGBT community

Dignity is a word people like to use when talking about the elderly. People age with dignity and die with dignity. What happens when a member of the LGBT community ages? Is there any dignity in being an elderly LGBT American? Imagine trying to feel dignified when the state makes your decisions for you. Imagine clinging to your dignity when the government takes away your property, your partner and your life.

The following are some general facts gathered by SAGE (serving and advocating for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender elders):

Recent estimates suggest that there are at least 1.5 million lesbians, gay and bisexual people 65 and older in the US, and this population will double by the year 2030. These figures are based on an estimate from UCLA’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law the 3.8 percent of Americans identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. However, measuring the number of LGBT people is difficult, given the undercounting caused by factors such as stigma, underreporting and methodological barriers, such as inconsistent question formats.

Many LGBT older adults deal with poverty and with reduced economic security. For LGBT older adults, a lifetime of employment discrimination and other factors contributes to disproportionately high poverty rates. One study found that same-sex elder couples face higher poverty rates than their heterosexual peers; 9.1% and 4.9% between elder lesbian and gay couples, respectively, in contrast to 4.6% among elder heterosexual couples.

LGBT older people deal with significant health disparities across areas related to physical and mental health, including high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease HIV/AIDS and more—as well as with serious mental health concerns. According to a 2011 national health study, more than half of the respondents have been told by a doctor that they have depression, 39% have seriously thought of suicide; and 53% feel isolated from others.

Social isolation affects many LGBT older people around the country as they deal with stigma and discrimination in their daily lives and in our country’s aging system. The primary risk factors for social isolation affect LGBT older adults in unique and disproportionate ways. For example, one primary risk factor is living alone. LGBT older people are twice as likely to live alone, twice as likely to be single, and 3-4 times less likely to have children—and many are estranged from their biological families.

Many mainstream aging providers do not account for the unique realities and needs of LGBT older adults, leaving them at risk for isolation, neglect and discrimination. A recent national survey of LGBT older adults in long-term care facilities found that only 22% of respondents felt they could be open about their LGBT identities with facility staff, 89% predicted that staff would discriminate based on their sexual orientations and/or gender identities, and 43%reported instances of mistreatment.

LGBT-inclusive aging services help offset these problems by providing spaces for LGBT elders to find community and support—but they are sparse and underfunded. A 2010 nationwide survey of 320 area and state units on aging found that less than 8% offered services targeted to LGBT older adults and only 12% reported outreach efforts to this population.

Aging LGBT people also face financial issues. A report by the Movement Advancement Project titled Improving The Lives Of LGBT Older Adults states that LGBT seniors are poorer than heterosexual seniors are. LGBT seniors have more problems for a variety of reasons. First, many members of the LGBT community lose money due to the lack of Medicaid protections. Medicaid has spousal improverishment protections for married couples. These protections allow the healthy spouse to maintain a high enough income to live independently, while the other spouse receives Medicaid to pay for long-term care. Since the LGBT community cannot receive this protection, they often run out of money while caring for ailing partners.

In addition, surviving members of same-sex couples are unable to receive survivor’s benefits from social security. Married couples receive these benefits and use them to supplement their incomes. Estate taxes also financially cripple the LGBT community. When a person in a same-sex relationship dies, the surviving partner has to pay estate taxes on the property they inherit. This can be incredibly expensive, and causes many people to lose their savings.

The quickly changing state by state decisions about marriage and rights for the LGBT community bring hope to this bleak picture. Hopefully, LGBT elders can soon have the rights, support and resources to live and die with the dignity we deserve.