{"id":17470,"date":"2014-06-29T11:51:01","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T03:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=17470"},"modified":"2014-06-29T11:51:01","modified_gmt":"2014-06-29T03:51:01","slug":"discrimination-persists-for-gay-and-lesbian-seniors-in-long-term-care-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/06\/29\/discrimination-persists-for-gay-and-lesbian-seniors-in-long-term-care-facilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Discrimination persists for gay and lesbian seniors in long term care facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo from gaytravel.in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO\u2014For 85-year-old Alf Roberts, Canada\u2019s largest gay pride festival is a chance to celebrate an identity he only felt comfortable sharing in his old age.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt last, after all these years I don\u2019t have to be careful when people ask me if I\u2019m gay,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI just say yes, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts came out when he was 80, shortly after moving into Fudger House, a long-term care facility for seniors in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a church organist for years and a music teacher, and you are very careful in those positions,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want everybody to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

For most of his life, Roberts would remain vague about his identity, responding \u201cI am who I am,\u201d when people asked him if he was gay.<\/p>\n

Then, relief came when he realized that Fudger House touted a gay-positive environment.<\/p>\n

Bill Ryan, a social worker and professor at McGill University, said it\u2019s rare to be openly gay in a seniors home.<\/p>\n

Ryan, who has conducted research on the elderly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community for more than a decade, said stigma persists because residents in seniors homes lived in an era when homosexuality was considered a criminal act or mental illness.<\/p>\n

Canada decriminalized homosexual acts in 1969.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey grew up at a time when the only coping strategy that was allowed to them was to hide and camouflage themselves,\u201d Ryan said, adding that most seniors don\u2019t have the benefit of political activism over the last 30 years.<\/p>\n

He added the baby boomer generation will be entirely different when they enter long-term care facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose growing into their 50s and 60s would go to the courts and tribunals to claim their rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During his research on long-term care facilities, Ryan heard from one gay couple who would go into the senior centre\u2019s bathroom to hold hands instead of showing affection in front of centre staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would visit during non-family visiting hours, and he would take his partner out of bed, help him into the bathroom and close the door behind him. Then they would hold each other for as long as they could and hug, and then he would open the bathroom door, put him back in bed, and not touch him again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a powerful metaphor of what a lot of people experience,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

He added that the cohort of LGBT seniors in long-term care are particularly vulnerable, and are at higher risk of isolation and depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe generation of those who haven\u2019t had HIV or AIDS are dealing with a lot more isolation because many of their friends have died,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Donna Turner, spokeswoman for Rainbow Health Ontario\u2014an organization that focuses on the health of the LGBT community\u2014said changing the culture in seniors homes is an \u201cuphill battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her organization is one of several that provides training to staff members in the hopes of quelling discrimination across Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong-term care facilities are particularly tough because there are some people who might already have pretty strong convictions, whether it\u2019s residents or staff,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For the most part, care centres will ask for training after there has already been a \u201cnegative incident,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And while seniors homes in urban areas such as Toronto may be LGBT-friendly, she said, that\u2019s not the reality across Canada.<\/p>\n

Marie Robertson has been a counsellor and an activist for the LGBT community for more than four decades.<\/p>\n

As a senior herself, Robertson, 61, said she has a \u201cvested interest\u201d in training staff to be LGBT-friendly at Canada\u2019s senior care centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that when my generation needs care, we\u2019re not going in the closet to access service,\u201d she said, adding that she helps to train people in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Robertson said members of the elderly LGBT community lived most of their lives facing high risks of personal and professional discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very frightening time,\u201d she said. \u201cEven in the last years of their lives, these people will die there and stay in the closet. That just breaks my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that while \u201csome of this is their mind-set,\u201d homophobia is still a problem in many seniors homes.<\/p>\n

In the United States, this has led to the creation of centres marketed specifically to the LGBT community, however Robertson said in Canada that would be \u201ca fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that instead of isolating LGBT seniors, the answer is to address discrimination head on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been paying taxes all my adult life, and my taxes have gone into building the facilities that exist today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With World Pride in Toronto wrapping up in a rainbow haze of revelry, Fudger House will be one of many organizations in Sunday\u2019s parade.<\/p>\n

Roberts\u2014who has ridden in the parade since he came out at 80\u2014said it\u2019s a chance to celebrate being true to yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are any young people who have someone they can talk to, they shouldn\u2019t be afraid to come out,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the message.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014For 85-year-old Alf Roberts, Canada\u2019s largest gay pride festival is a chance to celebrate an identity he only felt comfortable …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":17471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","mauthors-clare-clancy","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}