President of AARP Jennie Chin Hansen gave the keynote
speech at the Fourth National Conference of SAGE (Senior
Action in a Gay Environment) last October 13, 2008. It was selected as
a Vital Speech which is a very prestigious publication of the best
speeches in the country. Here it is for PRiSM Network members to read:
AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen
Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE)
Fourth National Conference
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
(
LGBT) Aging
New York
, New York
October 13, 2008
Good morning and
congratulations to SAGE on its 30th anniversary!
Speaking on behalf of AARP,
we’re proud to sponsor this conference and the very important
work that you do.
This year AARP
celebrates its 50th anniversary—we’re now old enough to
join ourselves. As you might imagine, through all those years
we’ve learned something about what it takes to change the way
society views older people, about how to dispel negative stereotypes
that deny people the dignity they deserve.
We know how hard that
kind of work can be, so we recognize and value even more what
you’ve accomplished.
Our two organizations share many of the
same goals, so it’s no surprise that we’ve collaborated
so often. Let me just highlight a few examples.
·
We worked with SAGE to launch a Public Benefit Outreach project
in New York City. This ongoing project has helped lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people enroll in federal and state public
benefit programs that can enhance their financial security.
·
At AARP’s recent National
Diversity in Aging Conference, concerns of LGBT older people were
fully integrated into the agenda. When it comes to disparities
in medical care, or economic security, or training health care
professionals, the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
community must be considered. Especially as this country
attempts to create a more holistic and inclusive health care system.
·
We were honored when the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force recognized AARP’s Office of Diversity
and Inclusion with its 2008 DC Leadership Award.
·
And we thank the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign for signing on to our
Divided We Fail initiative for accessible, affordable health care and
financial security. As I said, we
share many of the same goals: health care and financial security
certainly top the list. I’ll talk more about Divided We
Fail a little later.
·
I had the distinct pleasure of
speaking at AARP’s first official lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender reception for staff, volunteers and attendees of our
Live@50 National Event and Expo. This was our special
50th anniversary member event, and we pulled out all
stops to make this a fun, informative – and inclusive –
event.
·
And we’re pleased that
during this conference, SAGE will honor tennis great Martina
Navratilova with its Ken Dawson Advocacy Award. Martina is AARP’s
Health and Fitness
Ambassador.
Throughout AARP’s history,
we’ve been devoted to improving quality of life for ALL people
as they age. And to bring about a society where older people
can fully participate – without discrimination – in that
society.
Notice I said ALL. When we talk
about diversity at AARP, we mean it in its many dimensions,
including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity,
socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, spiritual and
religious beliefs – it encompasses all the ways in which we
might differ from one another.
We don’t view
diversity as an initiative with a beginning and an end –
it’s the way we do business. It’s everyone’s job.
And is considered when
we develop policy, programs, products and services in the marketplace
and in the workplace. This has
been our philosophy since our inception.
We owe that to our
remarkable founder, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, the first female high
school principal in Los Angeles.
The school was located
in a tough neighborhood and the student body consisted of many races
and ethnicities – and, most likely, of varying sexual
identities. If you’ve seen West Side Story, you
know that mutual respect – especially in high school – is
not a given.
Dr. Andrus required all
her students to perform community service in order to
graduate. Why? Because she believed that these
activities fostered strong friendships and loyalties – to each
other, and to the community. Diversity and inclusiveness is
part of our DNA.
Dr. Andrus believed that people want to
maintain independence, choice and control as they age, to stay
active and engaged, to live, learn and love.
Today AARP is 40 million members strong. Our members
span three generations and can be seen more often in sneakers than
in rockers.
Obviously, our members
are not homogenous – they have broad interests. In no way does a person’s race, gender,
ethnicity, or sexual identity deter us from carrying out our
mission.
We
believe the diversity of AARP is our strength and helps us expand our
reach and ensures that, as Dr. Andrus said, “What we do we do
for all.”
And
what we do is help people – no matter their sexual identity or
ethnicity – to chart their course through what we call
“ageless realities.” These ageless
realities come down to five needs:
·
The need for financial well being and a secure future;
·
The need for health;
·
The need to contribute, to volunteer and give back;
·
The need for community – family, friends, other social
networks; and
·
The need to play and enjoy life.
AARP is the chief consumer protection
organization for people 50+, and we bring that strength to
Capitol Hill, state legislatures, the courts and the community.
When people speak of those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, it’s as though “they” are outside of society. People feel they have little to share with this community.
But here’s how Congressman Barney Frank defines the LGBT agenda: “We want all people in the United States to enjoy the same legal rights as everyone else….
“including the right to serve, fight and even die on behalf of our country in the military; the right to earn a living by working hard and being judged wholly on the quality of our work….and yes, the right to express not only love for another person, but a willingness to be legally as well as morally responsible for his or her well-being….”
Does this sound radical? Not at all. We should not lose sight of our commonalities as human beings. We all share those five needs. We experience the same joys and fears, whether we are gay or transgender or Latino or Chinese.
We all want our differences acknowledged, respected and addressed. We want to spend quality time with friends, family, and loved ones; to be treated fairly in the workplace – AND the marketplace.
And we want to be treated with compassion and respect whether living at home, or in an assisted living facility, or in an institutional setting. This holds true for the entire aging population.
And we all have common concerns:
·
Will we outlive our money?
·
Will we be able to maintain independence, choice and control?
·
Will we be cared for by strangers instead of loved ones?
·
Will we become increasingly invisible, isolated and ignored?
AARP is acutely aware of
the intersection of aging and diversity as we move into the
21st century. If we are to thrive as an organization,
the face of our members, staff and volunteers must reflect the face of
America. And that means that we must be relevant to the older
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Let
me take a moment to speak on a personal note. I stand before you
as the first AARP president who is both Asian American and a boomer.
Despite
being the first and only Asian American in my nursing class, and the
only one in Moscow, Idaho, where I worked early in my career, I can
say that fortunately, I did NOT encounter blatant
discrimination.
When I was growing up,
there were many “Chinatowns” across the country, but
today, many of us are woven into the broader fabric of the community.
As for Moscow, Idaho,
with its high teen pregnancy and child abuse rate, I proposed that the
local school board allocate funds to hire its first nurse. I
flat out failed, but not because I was of Chinese descent.
Truth be told, I
didn’t have a clue about what was really important in that town
- football trumped health care every time. What it took to
succeed was forming bonds with parents and others in the
community. I learned to garden. And I even won two blue
ribbons at the state fair for my knitting handwork.
But what if my sexual
identity had been different? I – and the school children
of Moscow, Idaho – may not have been so fortunate, and that
first nurse may not have been hired.
We all look forward to
the day when discrimination and bigotry won’t interfere with
acceptance in the community. But while things have vastly
improved, we’re not there yet.
Only 20 states have laws
prohibiting discrimination based on sexual identity. And only 12
states and the District of Columbia have laws prohibiting employment
discrimination based on sexual identity and expression.
Most states have no laws
prohibiting discrimination based on sexual identity when it comes to
public accommodation and housing, as well as the licensing of nursing
homes, assisted living and other senior housing.
I’m sure many of
you have experienced first-hand many instances of unfair
treatment. I found three cases particularly disturbing as both a
nurse and gerontologist:
A 70-year-old gay man is
HIV positive and now living on Social Security. He asks,
“What will happen if I can’t take care of myself living
alone, and can’t find a safe, non-homophobic nursing home to
live in when I get really old? I sure as heck can’t go back
into the closet as an OLD gay man.”
He goes on to note,
“There are lots of us coming after me: we are old, we are gay
and we have been living with AIDS for many years.”
And then there was an
LGBT senior exiled to the Alzheimer’s wing of a nursing home,
though he didn’t have the disease.
Or the time a nursing
assistant entered a room to find two older male residents
embracing. They were immediately separated, and within a day one
was transferred to a psychiatric ward and placed in four-point
restraints! A community health board upheld this transfer as
warranted because of “deviant” behavior.”
When I think of that
happening to a loved one, my heart aches. Because I know how
critical it is for an older person to be treated with respect,
especially when no longer able to live independently.
One day some years ago I
received a phone call that changed my life. My father had
suffered a second stroke in Boston and I decided to bring him and my
mother back home with me to San Francisco.
It was sheer good
fortune that I was already working at On Lok, a multi-cultural,
multi-lingual community-based organization in San Francisco providing
long-term care services to seniors.
This was in the 1980s,
before the phrase “home and community-based care” even existed.
On Lok was invaluable to
my parents, who were able to live out their remaining years surrounded
by family and professionals who provided excellent care, spoke their
language, and who treated them with respect and cultural appropriateness.
It was also invaluable
to me as their primary caregiver. Before then I’d been a
nurse, a researcher and a professor, but from that time on, my
life’s work became focused on advancing community-based health
and long-term care.
And that includes
working on behalf of the 44 million informal caregivers who form the
backbone of our long-term care system. That work today is valued
at $350 billion a year!
But most LGBT seniors
lack traditional family support. According to SAGE, 70% of those
55 and older in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community
are living alone with no children or partner to care for them.
That’s twice as
many as the senior heterosexual population. And they are 4
½ more likely to have no children to call on in times of need.
Compounding that is the
fact that almost NO agencies exist to specifically meet the social
service needs of LGBT older people. Not to mention those who
have AIDS or are HIV infected.
When lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender older people become dependent on the
health-care system, home care or long-term care, they are often faced
with bigotry, fear, ignorance and unjust and inequitable treatment.
I can only imagine the
anger and desperation when many are forced to go back in the closet.
Or when they are
separated from their life partners – who are then deprived of
rights extended to heterosexual spouses or family members.
No surprise, then, that
the older LGBT population is at particular risk for depression,
neglect, substance abuse, unnecessary institutionalization and
premature death.
AARP and the LGBT
organizations are often aligned when it comes to fighting for personal
and legal rights for the LGBT community, rights that will allow LGBT
people to age with dignity and respect.
I should mention that
AARP membership includes both spouse or partner. And when it
comes to our own employment practices, we include sexual and gender
identity in our EEO and anti-harassment policy statements.
We provide domestic
partner benefits – including health, dental and life insurance
– to unmarried couples and families.
And AARP also recognizes
domestic partners in other life situations, such as family and medical leave.
In addition, we have a
strong LGBT and Allies Employee Resource Group (ERG) called the PRiSM Network.
Membership has doubled
in a year. Its goal is to advance recognition, acceptance, inclusion
and equality of all LGBT people and their families.
For almost 8 years,
they’ve done a terrific job with our employees in raising
awareness not only about the needs of the LGBT population, but its
strengths as a community.
In fact, the PRiSM
Network’s internal advocacy and education helped pave the way
for AARP to be a major sponsor of this important conference.
ERGs are tantamount to
our people strategy to create an organizational culture that is
inclusive and fully engages ALL our employees.
On a national level, let
me just highlight three policies that AARP supports:
·
anti-discrimination laws to include sexual identity, so
that same sex couples can be housed together in assisted living
facilities and nursing homes;
·
amending Medicaid laws to provide same-gender partners with all
the financial protections afforded to opposite-sex community
spouses; and
·
programs and policies that permit people in kinship care
situations and others with an insurable interest in the pensioner to
share in, or receive, survivor benefits from private pensions.
These policies are
especially relevant for the LGBT community considering that one in ten
same-sex couples include a partner 65 years old or older.
Some of you may be
interested in the LGBT demographic worldwide. Since the 1970s,
much of the world has become more accepting of same-sex sexuality
between partners of
legal age
.
The
Pew Research Center
's 2007 Global Attitudes Survey found that people in Africa and
the Middle East “strongly object to societal acceptance of homosexuality.”
There is far greater
acceptance of homosexuality in major Latin American countries such as
Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil.
Opinion in Europe is
split between West and East. Majorities in every Western European
nation surveyed say homosexuality should be accepted by society, while
most Russians, Poles and Ukrainians disagree.
Americans are divided
– a plurality (49%) believes homosexuality should be accepted,
while 41% disagree. Still, there seems to be a growing belief that LGBT
people should have some basic rights – like being free from
job discrimination, or being able to visit a partner in a hospital
Let me close by talking
about Divided We Fail. Two years ago AARP, along with The
Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union,
launched a national effort to ensure that every American has access to
quality, affordable health care and lifelong financial security.
We worked to increase
public demand for solutions to these issues. And we pressed the
candidates-- both Presidential and Congressional – for their
commitment to meaningful, bipartisan action.
Today more than 100
organizations – including the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce
and the Human Rights Campaign – have joined this
effort.
With the global economy
collapsing around us, any long-overdue fixes to health care and
financial security will need to be addressed in light of this new reality.
Still,the hotly
contested 2008 presidential and vice presidential election
represents a new day in race, gender and age considerations –
and signifies that our society has made tremendous progress in the
last 40 years.
With the inauguration of
a new president, our real work begins – turning campaign
promises into concrete solutions. The new President and Members
of Congress must get to work and take meaningful action.
AARP knows that
solutions to the challenges facing health care and financial security
come with trade-offs and tough choices. We also know that doing
nothing and letting these problems fester is costly and unacceptable.
AARP will be at the
table when health care reform and financial security proposals are
developed and ideas turn into legislation.
Together with our
supporting organizations, we can make sure that health care and
financial security stay on the front burner.
Together, we can hold
elected officials accountable for their action – or inaction.
Despite these uncertain
times, it’s more critical than ever that we join together to
rekindle the American promise for all generations. There’s
so much at stake.
We’re immensely
pleased that SAGE will be fighting alongside us in the battle to win
affordable, accessible health care and lifelong financial security for
us all. Thank you so much, Michael, for your support.
—AARP—
story of stuff
