LGBTQ Positive Retirement Facilities: A Growing Sector - Dissertation Example

Societies of today openly espouse the virtues of individual freedoms and rights. The basic premise of the Bill of Rights itself is “Life, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Happiness”.  Unfortunately, the words used to express the desire to grant equal rights to all people have not translated into action on a broad scale. In fact, this very pursuit of happiness has been seen to take a thorny path for members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community. Sparked in part by the current media frenzy about same-sex marriage laws in the United States, the author has identified a reality that there is a lack of data regarding LGBTQ eldercare in the San Antonio, Texas area. Appendix 1 lists various definitions of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer population, as defined by Maria Pettinato (2012, p. 24).
Current demographic trends illustrate the steady aging of the US population. In fact, adults over the age of 65 will comprise nearly one-fifth of the population in the next 25 years, rising to about 40% of the population in the next 40 years if current estimates hold (Ritter, 2007, p. 999). The LGBTQ elderly community comprises individuals of a particular sexual persuasion who are aged 65 or older. Current conservative estimates show the LGBTQ elderly population to be roughly 1.3 to 1.5 million people (Ritter, 2009, p. 999). Most demographic experts, however, pen this number as closer to 3 million; using the assumption that 3 to 8% of the population identifies themselves as members of the LGBTQ community. Projections are currently difficult to make with certainty, but some sources believe that the ‘queer’ elderly population will grow to at least four million strong by the year 2030. (Buchanan, 2006 quoted in Ritter, 2009). Some studies, however, revise that number to upwards of 6 million individuals (Gendron et al, 2013, p. 454).
Part of the difficulty in determining how large the LGBTQ elderly community stems from the fact that many members of the population go ‘back into the closet’ for various reasons. Studies reveal that many members of this community are reluctant to admit their sexual orientation for fear of being mistreated, shunned, and/or losing their partners and all of their belongings (Cahill and South, 2002 quoted in Gendron et al, 2012, p. 455). This particular generation has evolved through many historical events of great significance to their community, such as McCarthyism, Stonewall, the peak of the HIV epidemic, declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, and finally the legalization of same-sex marriages in some localities. They have matured during an era when there was not even a well-defined understanding of their sexual orientation in the context of society as a whole. In this regard, their reluctance to ‘come out’, or to reveal their homosexual orientation, is completely understandable.
It is also important to understand that the particular issues facing the elderly LGBTQ are often overlooked, despite the current buzz over granting equal civil and legal rights for same-sex couples. This community is still marred by a strong ageist attitude, whereby many consider a gay man 30 years of age to already be old (Knauer, 2009, p. 32).