FAMILY
Federal aging report includes LGBT elders
FOR UENTi
Historic achievement marks a
milestone in the fight for the rights
of LGBT elders
by Roberta Sklar
WASHINGTON, D.C.— The long-
awaited “Final Report of the 2005 White
House Conference on
Aging” (WHCoA),
released by the
Administration on
Aging, marks a mile
stone in the fight for
the rights of LGBT eld
ers. Months of inten
sive organizing,
including town hall
meetings held around
the country and the
National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force
(NGLTF) convening it’s
“Make Room for All”
diversity summit last
December — a coun
terpoint to the WHCoA
— have paid off in the
explicit inclusion of
LGBT elders in the
report.
Resolution 34, for example, includes the
following implementation strategy;
“Expand the definition of minority popula-
As a result of inclusion in the federal
aging report, the LGBT senior
community is recognized as a minority
that can benefit from increased federal
funds for healthcare.
tions to include — gays, lesbians, bisexuals,
transgenders and seniors with disabilities
and increase federal funding to the
National Institute of Health (NIH), Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
Title 3 and other federal agencies to reduce
health disparities and promote health pro
motion programming for all minority pop
ulations.”
LGBT elders and
their advocates con
verged on the
nation’s capital last
December for “Make
Room for All: A
National Summit
and Hearing on the
Recommended
Priorities for the
WHCoA: Diversity,
Cultural Competency
and Discrimination
in an Aging
America.” Sponsored
by NGLTF, the event
highlighted the
growing diversity of
the country’s aging
population, as well
as the challenges
that diversity presents to policymakers and
service providers.
“Make Room for All,” essentially a count
er summit to the WHCoA, was backed by
E)ena Paysour and Lisa Steves
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Services and'Advocacy for LGBT Elders
(SAGE); the American Society on Aging and
its constituency groups, the Lesbian and
Gay Aging Issues Network and the Network
on Multicultural Aging; National
Association on HIV Over Fifty; Older
Women’s League; and Griot Circle, among
others.
Elder advocates also challenged the
WHCoA at a Dec. 13 press conference for
refusing to include sexual orientation, gen
der identity and other vulnerable popula
tions in its resolutions. In addition, critics
— including WHCoA delegates — had said
rigid conference procedures and vague reso
lutions were preventing substantive discus
sion of critical aging issues, such as improv
ing the cultural competency of service
providers, providing adequate funding for
the implementation of elder care services,
and bolstering the economic security of a
diverse aging population.
As co-founders of the Diversity in Aging
Coalition, SAGE and NGLTF are building a
network of support among those advocating
policies that reflect the diverse experiences of
our nation’s seniors.
“Our community refuses to sit on the
sidelines and watch our needs go ignored,”
said Amber Hollibaugh, a senior strategist for
NGLTF and one of the nation’s premier spe
cialists on LGBT aging issues. “Our'commu-
nity’s inclusion in this final report reflects
this unwavering principle.” I
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NOVEMBER 4.2006 • Q-NOTES 15