New Report From UCLA Center For Health Policy Research Finds Alarming Disparities For Aging Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Population

California Watch reports that according to a new report released Tuesday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, aging lesbian, gay and bisexual adults in California have higher rates of chronic disease, mental distress and isolation than their heterosexual counterparts. An estimated 170,000 adults ages 50 to 70 in California identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual in 2007, and researchers estimate that the national population of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults age 65 and older will double to 3 million by 2030. Based on data collected in 2003, 2005, and 2007 California Health Interview Survey, the surveys include more than 1,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual adults ages 50 to 70 in every county in the state, and found that these aging lesbian, gay and bisexual adults were more educated and were less racially diverse than heterosexual adults of the same age. 16.6-percent of heterosexual adults had advanced degrees, but the study revealed that 35-percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults did. Nearly 41-percent of heterosexual adults were people of color – African American, American Indian, Asian American, Latino, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, other or mixed race – compared to 22.5-percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults. "By a lot of markers, this should be a fairly privileged population, but it actually wasn't," said Steven Wallace, lead researcher of the report and associate director of the center, adding that "In spite of high education, there were still high levels of chronic illness, and a sort of average level of health insurance." Aging gay and bisexual men were 1.5 times more likely to rate their own health as fair or poor than were heterosexual men with similar demographics, and they also had significantly higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, psychological distress and physical disability. 50.5-percent of gay and bisexual men lived alone, compared to just 13.4-percent of their heterosexual counterparts. The same held true for women, the study finding that one in four lesbian and bisexual women lived alone, compared to one in five heterosexual women. The report found significantly higher rates of psychological distress, physical disability and self-reported health as fair or poor among lesbian and bisexual women. There were few differences between heterosexual, and lesbian, gay and bisexual adults in their access to and use of health care services. Gay and bisexual men delayed care or prescriptions and visited the emergency room at about the same rate as heterosexual men. However, they were 1.19 times more likely to have visited the doctor more than three times in the past year. But among lesbian and bisexual women, more than one in four reported delaying care – a rate 1.28 times greater than that of heterosexual women. They were also 1.09 times more likely to have had three or more doctor visits in the past year. Perhaps most troubling, the study suggests that since fewer lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults have children, they therefore have less generational support than do heterosexual adults as they age. Seth Kilbourn, the executive director of Openhouse, a LGBT community services and housing organization in San Francisco, said "Most LGBT elder adults don't have the informal family networks that many seniors have, whether that's a son or a daughter, or even a spouse or a partner." San Francisco will be home to an estimated 25,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender adults over age 60 within the next five years, and Kilbourn says that given the city's expensive housing market, many struggle to find affordable housing. Openhouse is in the process of building 109 units of low-income, subsidized housing for LGBT seniors, located in the city's Duboce Triangle neighbourhood. The $50 million project has partnered with a developer and is starting to apply for local, state and federal funding to build it. Similar housing exists in Los Angeles. Triangle Square in Hollywood, a project of Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing, was the nation's first affordable housing development for LGBT seniors. More than 800 people applied for a spot in its 104 units in 2006. Neither project meets the demand of their communities, and San Francisco would need thousands more units of affordable housing. The report recommends increasing cultural competency and sensitivity among health care providers as a first step toward improving access to and quality of care for aging lesbian, gay and bisexual adults, and calls for policies that extend full Medicaid and Social Security spousal benefits to same sex partners to reduce financial obstacles to health care that some older lesbian, gay and bisexual adults encounter. It concludes that all major data systems in California, including census surveys, should include lesbian, gay and bisexual identity as a standard demographic question.