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Photo: Alison Whyte,
Executive Director of the DC Developmental Disabilities
Council, at the 2022 Capital Pride Festival.
By Alison Barkoff, Acting Administrator and
Assistant Secretary for Aging
Pride Month offers an opportunity to celebrate the
resilience of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,
Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) community—a diverse community
that spans generations and abilities—and the progress we
have made as a nation in the fight for LGBTQI+ equality. As
President Biden noted in his Pride
Month proclamation, it also is an opportunity to
consider what more we can do to ensure our programs and
services are truly equitable and inclusive—and recommit to
taking action.
Earlier this month, President Biden signed
an Executive
Order on Advancing Equality for LGBTQI+ Individuals.
Among other things, the EO seeks to address barriers to
health care faced by LGBTQI+ people and strengthen supports
for LGBTQI+ older adults.
At ACL, we are working every day to ensuring
that LGBTQI+ people with disabilities and older adults
receive the services and supports they need to live and
fully participate in their communities. In communities
across the country, the disability and aging networks are
working to address the unique needs of the LGBTQI+ people
they serve. As we close Pride Month, we want to share a few
highlights from our grantees.
Supporting LGBTQI+ People
with Disabilities
LGBTQI+ people with disabilities can face a
variety of unique challenges that can range from navigating
inaccessible LGBTQI+ community spaces to having to choose
between living authentically and receiving needed services
and supports. These barriers underscore the need for
programs serving people with disabilities to prioritize
equity and create a welcoming and affirming environment for
all. Here are just a few examples of how some the
disability networks are rising to the challenge:
- The Developmental Disabilities
Council of the District of Columbia had a booth at
this year's Pride Festival. The Council heard from a
number of autistic LGBTQI+ people who were excited to
see a disability organization at Pride; they even
connected with a representative from a local LGBTQI+
community organization looking to ensure that a new
space they are moving into is accessible.
- The New York State Developmental
Disabilities Planning Council helped fund the Autistic
Self-Advocacy Networks' new Rights
and Respect toolkit. The guide covers the rights
of LGBTQI+ autistic people, including the right to be
treated with respect by support workers, and offers
tips on advocacy.
- In January, ACL's Self-Advocacy
Resource and Technical Assistance Center partnered
with Mass Advocates Standing Strong to host a
Zoom session on self-acceptance and supporting LGBTQI+
people.
- In an
article for The Compass newsletter, the Chief
Information Officer of the Tennessee Council on
Development Disabilities shares how the state's DD
network has been strengthening partnerships to better
serve LGBTQI+ Tennesseans with disabilities.
- ACL's National Institute on
Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) has funded
a variety of research projects focused on
LGBTQI+ people and people living with HIV. Dr. Jean
Hall of the Research and Training Center on
Independent Living at the University of Kentucky was a
co-author on a
paper published earlier this year comparing rates
of various disability types and the odds of unmet
healthcare needs among people who identify as
transgender and those who do not.
Supporting LGBTQI+ Older
Adults
This month’s Executive Order directs HHS to
publish a “Bill of Rights for LGBTQI+ Older Adults” and new
guidance on the non-discrimination protections for older
adults in long-term care settings. It also charges HHS with
exploring new rulemaking to establish that LGBTQI+ individuals
are included in the definition of populations of “greatest
social need” under the Older Americans Act.
ACL’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aging
Edwin Walker, who also represents ACL on the HHS LGBTQI+
Coordinating Council, said, “We are so grateful to
President Biden for specifically calling attention to the
needs of LGBTQI+ older adults. Today’s older LGBTQI+ people
have faced discrimination and inequity at every stage of
their lives, and as a result, many are more isolated and in
poorer health than their peers. ACL has long recognized the
unique—and often greater—needs of LGBTQI+ older adults, and
we have worked to address them through our programs.
President Biden’s executive order gives us an opportunity
to expand and accelerate that work, and it creates a call
to action for the federal government that will help us
carry the spirit of Pride Month throughout the year.”
ACL has a long history of working to advance
equity for older LGBTQI+ people. (You can learn more about
some of our ongoing work in our
2021 Pride Month blog post.)
The aging network shares that history, and
our shared commitment to that goal can be seen in the work
of two state units on aging on opposite sides of the
country. Our Q&A
blog post this morning featured two trailblazers leading
efforts to make aging services more responsive to the needs
of LGBTQI+ elders in Oregon and Maine. Debbie McCuin of the
Oregon Department of Human Services and James Moorhead of
the Maine Department of Health and Human Services talked
about the discrimination LGBTQI+ older adults have faced at
every stage of their lives and how that has shaped their
needs as they age. They discussed the importance of
listening to LGBTQI+ older adults, partnering with LGBTQI+
community organizations, and collecting data. Both make
clear that there are no shortcuts or quick fixes—creating a
truly responsive aging services network requires an
on-going network-wide commitment and dedicated staff time.
We are so proud of the work our networks are
doing to ensure that our programs are responsive to the
needs of all we serve. We share the sense of urgency and
commitment to doing all we can to support those in greatest
need. We each have a role to play in ensuring that our
shared vision of community living includes all older
adults and people with disabilities and achieving equity
will take all of us working together.
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