This Is Something Close To My Heart.

We are all hopefully going to be at this point someday where need assisted living or are looking for senior housing in 55+ communities and we wonder if we will have to go back into the closet again.

New frontier for gay rights: Bias and bullying in senior housing.
Chicago Tribune
By Nara Schoenberg
May 17, 2018

Even before she began searching for senior housing, Marti Smith had heard the horror stories.

Her gay friends told Smith, a lesbian, that when their partners entered assisted living the partners had to hide their homosexuality to avoid bias and bullying. Even Smith's friends had to play along when they visited.

“Visitors were told not to act gay or dress gay because of fear of harassment when they left,” said Smith, 73. “That’s very common.”

Earlier this month, an Evanston senior living community, the Merion, became the first in the state to achieve the top lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender competency credential from the nonprofit SAGE, a move that reflects a growing awareness of the challenges facing LGBT elders in senior housing. Both locally and nationally, seniors and advocates are calling for more welcoming and supportive housing.

Here in Connecticut the Connecticut Community Care Inc. agency in cooperation with LGBT Aging Advocacy Coalition (which I am a member of as part of the CT TransAdvocacy Coalition) and developed a program called “Getting it Right.”

Connecticut Elder Care Agencies Coming Out As LGBT Allies
Hartford Courant
By Rebecca Lurye
April 11, 2018

When someone walks into Jewish Family Services Care at Home for the first time, they’re bound to see a rainbow — if not in the stars on the glass front door, the welcome board, or the pamphlets in the waiting room, then in the flag pins on every staff member’s shirt.

There’s almost as many symbols of LGBT pride as company logos inside the West Hartford service provider’s office. It’s the organization's way of coming out as inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities, a move aimed at welcoming and reassuring one of the most marginalized populations of seniors.
[…]
Local screenings in 2013 sparked an effort by Connecticut Community Care Inc. — a Bristol-based organization that links people to service providers — to make a change in this state. CCCI and several partners formed the LGBT Aging Advocacy coalition and developed a program called “Getting it Right,” a two-pronged approach — part branding, part training — to improving elder care services for LGBT people.

So where am I today?

I am down in Hamden doing training for long term care and nursing home providers as a part of the  LGBT Aging Advocacy Coalition.