What Older LGBT people say… Some research findings

1. What Older LGBT people say…Some research findings Arthur Law Coordinator, Spectrum LGBT Community Forum Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

2. A history of exclusion • Many Older LGBT people will have grown up in an era where there were heavy consequences for being identified as LGBT • Sex between men criminalised until 1967 • Homosexuality listed as mental illness until 1992 • Only in the last 5 years • discrimination outlawed in employment and services • LGBT relationships recognised for first time in law Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

3. A history of exclusion “I was first sent to see a psychiatrist in 1925 when I was 17 years old. I remained under treatment for 25 years receiving aversion therapy and drug treatment. This includes two periods as an inpatient. In 1950 I was discharged and told I was incurable. It is only in the last 5 years that I have felt good about myself and my sexuality.” Arthur - Polari: As We Get Older Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

4. Feelings and experiences of safety Count Me In Too found that for Older LGBT 55+ • 33% had experienced verbal abuse in last 5 years • 36% had experienced negative comments • 5% had experienced physical violence related to their sexual and gender identities • on top of other experiences of crime Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

5. Feelings and experiences of safety Count Me In Too also found: • isolated LGBT people more likely to have experienced all forms of hate crime • LGBT people in social housing more likely to experience certain hate crimes • ‘Learning’ to accept prejudice and discrimination because it is part of your daily life can mean that it eventually goes unnoticed, undefined and unnamed Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

6. Feelings and experiences of safety Older LGBT people are more likely to: • fear crime and feel unsafe • use avoidance strategies due to safety concerns • 69% avoiding going out at night due to safety fears Older LGBT people have high levels of suicide ideation: • 35% had serious thoughts of suicide in last 5 years Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

7. A culture of invisibility and heterosexism “It is a very subtle thing you see because discrimination is a word that sounds like something very active that somebody does to you and actually oppression, which I prefer to speak about is … like a soup that you are sitting in. It is in your eyes and you nose and it is everywhere so it isn't something that you can say well that person did that thing to me. You can identify those events but they are like the carrots in the soup, they are like the big bits that you can grab hold of and say ‘well I was walking along the Level and somebody hit me over the head without provocation and then proceed to racial abuse me’. So that to me is at the hunk of you know carrot or leek or whatever it is that's in the soup but the rest of the soup is there all the time. And you know that's life, that is actually what life is like when you are… a woman, you are a Lesbian, you are Asian, you are Muslim, you are all of those things that I am … I think in Brighton there is a kind of naivety, ‘oh we are all very nice in Brighton and therefore we don't discriminate against anybody’ and I think that's a problem. There is a kind of naïve collusion with institutional and other forms of what is soupy oppression, which people don't really recognise.” Yasmin – Count Me in Too Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

8. The impact in older people’s care settings “It’s a genuine fear that I have. I am fiercely independent… If my health deteriorates a lot over the next 10 years I will be allowed to go into sheltered housing. My fear is that as I get older, as my family of origin die, I will be alone and I do fear going into care…” Q13 - Count Me In Too Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

9. The impact in older people’s care settings “I worry about what I would do if and when I would get frail. I have seen other people lose their partners, unable to get about, ending up in hospital wards and old people’s homes and having to be careful with visitors and so forth. It would be so much more relaxing (and therefore better for one’s health) not to have to hide one’s past – or indeed one’s present, friends and relationships. Rosa - Polari: As We Get Older Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

10. The impact in older people’s care settings For some these fears are borne out by experience… “They don’t know I’m gay, and if they did I know they wouldn’t treat me the same, as they sometimes make comments that are overtly homophobic.” Jim - Polari: As We Get Older “At the moment my isolation prevents me from being out where I live … I feel like I am returning to the closet whenever I come home.” Pat - Polari: As We Get Older Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

11. The impact in older people’s care settings clear evidence of a desire for services that actively include and involve older LGBT people: “As I get older, I will not be able to rely just on my own resources or my friends, yet I will feel alien from heterosexual facilities. So we need a range of statutory and voluntary services and accommodation provided for lesbians and with lesbians having a real say in how they are run…” Sara - Polari: As We Get Older Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

12. The impact in older people’s care settings clear evidence of a desire for services that actively include and involve older LGBT people: “it might be better for me to live in some sort of sheltered accommodation or whatever but one of the things that I like about where I am is that I am actually in a mixed community… I don't want to be hived off into a little ghetto of elderly gay people.” Alf - Count Me In Too Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008

13. summary • A history of exclusion • Severe penalties in the past for being out as LGBT • Feelings and experiences of safety • discrimination is both real and contemporary • fears and avoidance strategies compound exclusion and isolation and impact on health and life quality • Heterosexism in older people’s care settings • Older LGBT people fear losing their identity, friendship networks as well as discrimination • Older LGBT people want to be treated with dignity and respect and to know that services are genuinely inclusive Monitoring Sexual Orientation Workshop for Providers of Sheltered and Call-Out services 16 October 2008