Abstract
The social positioning of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults is influenced by a constellation of historic and contemporary policies that shape the way they interact with the world around them. Although the past few decades have witnessed several legislative decisions that reflect a more open stance toward LGBT individuals, there remains a lack of federal policies that protect them. This paper provides a critical analysis of the LGBT Elder Americans Act of 2019, a bill amending the Older Americans Act of 1965 to include LGBT older adults in the definition of those with “greatest social needs” for the purpose of service planning and implementation. As a theoretical framework, we apply a life course perspective and an equity lens to examine the promise and limitations of the LGBT Elder Americans Act in meeting the needs of LGBT older adults. It is critically important for social work practitioners, policy makers, and scholars to understand the principles that drive policy debates so that they can advocate on behalf of the most vulnerable members of the population. We offer three recommendations for future policy making: i) Apply a life course perspective to understand the lived experiences of LGBT elders; ii) Apply an equity lens to public policy; and iii) Expand research to guide and advance policy development.
Highlights
The social positioning of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults is influenced by a constellation of historic and contemporary policies that shape the way they interact with the world around them
Training social workers to critically examine U.S policies and the underpinning factors that impose and/or support social inequality is essential to addressing the structures of domination that affect the populations we serve. In light of these concerns, we offer three recommendations for future policy-making that might produce better outcomes for LGBT older adults: i) apply a life course perspective to understand the lived experiences of LGBT elders; ii) apply an equity lens to inform policy development; and iii) apply research evidence to guide and advance social policy
Research has found that LGBT individuals are susceptible to economic, social, and health disparities at different developmental stages that culminate in serious disadvantages in later life
Summary
LGBT older adults represent a highly diverse, distinct, and rapidly growing segment of the population. Parks (1999) identifies three distinctive periods in LGBT history (the PreStonewall, Liberation, and Gay Rights) and explains that each era represents a unique cultural standpoint, political struggle, and societal attitude toward LGBT people She notes that adults 65 and older who came of age prior to Gay Liberation in the 1960s-1980s experienced intense stigmatization. The Mattachine Society, Homophile Movement, and Daughters of Bilitis in the 1950s; the Stonewall Riots in 1969; and the efforts of ACTUP on behalf of people living with AIDS during the 1980s and 1990s, for example, challenged dominant assumptions about acceptable human behavior (D’Emilio, 1998) These LGBT political movements increased the visibility of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Their social positioning must be understood from an historical perspective that takes into account their experiences with discrimination and stigmatization
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