By Isabella Kostolni
Older LGBTQ+ adults are twice as likely to have experienced discrimination as their straight peers, according to the National Council on Aging, and with this in mind, UWM’s Student Gerontology Association set out to consider the intersection of these identities in an event exploring and celebrating the older adult LGBTQ+ community on Oct.15.
Janice Toy, James Simmons, and Bethea – three “elders” in Milwaukee’s Black LGBTQ+ community, as House of History MKE Director Dr. Brice Smith, who spoke at the event, refers to them – joined in a panel discussion led by UWM LGBTQ+ Resource Center Director Dr. Ariana Myers highlighting their experiences.
Panel discussed lived experiences, challenges locating resources
Beyond discrimination, public health crises like the HIV/AIDS epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic mark the lives of the older adult LGBTQ+ community.
Simmons noted that locating and making use of local resources is hard enough as an older adult, but factoring in an LGTBQ+ identity can make the process doubly difficult.
“When you get older, you’re not able to get up and get out there and get in line for resources that’s provided publicly. You kind of get looked over,” he explained. “A lot of times, the gays, they don’t even go after [publicly available resources] because they don’t want to go out and get in these lines. And, depending upon how they present themselves and who they are … when they get there, people look at them and they don’t fit in societally. Sometimes they’re ostracized and ridiculed, so, a lot of times, they just get turned off by the whole seeking for help experience.”
Beyond discrimination, public health crises like the HIV/AIDS epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic mark the lives of the older adult LGBTQ+ community. Bethea explained that over time, more educational information has become available about protecting oneself during such epidemiological events. However, the responsibility falls on the individual to act on that information.
“The education is available, but if you don’t use the education, it’s useless,” he said. “It is more available for our younger people today, but I don’t believe that they are as serious about it as they should be.”
Resilient LGBTQ+ community
Though such crises struck the LGBTQ+ community particularly hard, Toy said they found ways to rise up and support one another.
“You had to be resourceful,” Toy explained. “Being in this community…we always found ways to beat the odds. We found loopholes and doors to open.”
The hardships endured during both the HIV/AIDS epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic were further illuminated during the event with the display of a memory quilt created in a collaboration between UWM, MIAD, House of History MKE, and Diverse & Resilient – a nonprofit organization working to improve the safety of and achieve health equity for the queer community. The quilt was constructed on Sept. 13 as part of a program highlighting intergenerational communication in a retrospective conversation about the public health crises.
Despite the resiliency of older adults in the LGBTQ+ community, there’s still a long way to go before society fully fills the gap in resources, representation, support, and acceptance.
“A lot of these different community organizations…turn a deaf ear to it and they feel like if it’s not in their little circle, then it doesn’t affect them,” Simmons said. “But, if it affects one person, it effects everybody.”