Author and trans activist Matt Kailey will be on a panel today at the SAGE of the Rockies conference on GLBT aging 'Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Choosing to Live Well' that will address the unique needs and concerns of transgender and transsexual elders.
The conference itself addresses the needs and concerns of the entire LGBT community as we age.
I spoke to Kailey about the conference yesterday and he spoke on some of the topics that the conference will touch on and why they are important.
"Aging is of special importance to our community because we still suffer prejudice and discrimination within the medical, health care and aging services communities," said Kailey. "For same-sex couples, imagine having your partner go to a nursing home and not being allowed access to information or the same types of visitation that a straight partner would have. And what if you both moved into an assisted living facility or a nursing care facility and were not allowed to be in the same room? Also, there are concerns about how we might be treated by staff when they discover that we are LGBT. There are inheritance and other legal concerns. We have many unique needs that this conference will address."
