LGBT elders often do not access adequate health care, affordable housing or other social services that they need due to institutionalized heterosexism. Existing regulations and proposed policy changes in programs like Social Security or Medicare, which impact millions of LGBT elders, are discussed without a LGBT perspective engaging the debate. Even the most basic rights such as hospital visitation or the right to die in the same nursing home are regularly denied same-sex partners.
The National Resource Center of LGBT aging has written a guide that includes information about issues related to relationship recognition, finances, health care, long term care, Medicare and Medicaid, planning for the care of minor or disabled children, inheritance, elder abuse, and discrimination against LGBT elders. Read more at lgbtagingcenter.org.
