The LGBT Foundation aims to support senior gays who are experiencing many of the difficulties of aging. They have survived homophobia, workplace discrimination, and HIV/AIDS but today must deal with the side effects, the financial and social hardships, the ageism, in a community where youth and beauty are not only embraced, but worshiped.
Many do not have the support network of a spouse, children, and extended family to see them through rough times. Every day, we see on the evening news how hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires wipe out the gains of lifetimes spent working hard to provide for stable homes and lifestyles, reducing many people’s lives and memories to piles of ashes or rubble, if they aren't completely washed or blown away. Those are major catastrophes, but what about the smaller devastations like job loss or an uninsured catastrophic physical or mental illness that can also wipe out the dreams of peaceful retirement in one’s golden years; there is no FEMA aid in place for the issues that most people don’t even consider a possibility until they become personal.
Senior gays verging on homelessness due to circumstances beyond their control can only hope for the kindness of friends and community, from their family of choice, for assistance. Yes, the federal government is slowly changing laws so that qualifying members of the LGBT community may apply for the earned benefits left for a surviving spouse, but until every state recognizes the legal marriages of gays from the states that do, many senior gays are left with overwhelming financial burdens that accompany the challenges of aging and the challenges of caring for, and then losing, an ailing spouse. And not everyone is lucky enough to have a spouse’s, or life partner’s, benefits to count on for rainy days. What of the single gays who, whether by choice or design, find themselves without any prospect of benefiting from changing laws that can lend a financial hand when their circumstances take a downturn. It is even worse for those LGBT seniors who’ve had no choice but to live their adult lives on the fringe of society because their family, friends, and community will not make room for them at the table: transgenders and sex workers.
The LGBT Foundation will help improve prospects for all senior gays who need it. Through the generosity of donations solicited via our website, where we will offer video testimonials highlighting the lives everyday senior gays, we hope to raise awareness at the same time that we combat issues of aging: the loss of a spouse, unexpected debts, health care, isolation, long term elder care, homelessness, and ageism. We hope to ensure that no gay baby-boomer ends up living on the streets because they have no other option. We hope soon to be that other option.
Please view these IMPORTANT TESTIMONIALS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zv9SQri7JI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuXwyLmsc28
Contact: Richard Morgan / Treasurer - LGBT-Foundation - 8149 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 134, West Hollywood, CA 90046-4912
[email protected]
