CA Assembly Aging Report Includes LGBT Seniors

Greeting all 80 members of California's Assembly as they return to the Statehouse this month will be a one-inch thick report detailing the needs of the state's minority senior populations, including LGBT older adults.

Compiled by the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care, it is drawn from a series of informational hearings held throughout 2014 that explored "the intersection of diversity and aging."

A "silver tsunami" is already hitting California, with the state's population of people age 60 and older expected to reach 13.9 million by 2050, accounting for more than 25 percent of residents.

"It will be an issue that comes up this next legislative session. I think there will be a lot more legislation from different members," predicted Assemblywoman Cheryl B. Brown (D-San Bernardino), who is the new chair of the aging committee.

The committee's former chair, Mariko Yamada, who was termed out of the Assembly in December, made it a priority during her final year to conduct seven different hearings regarding aging minority Californians, which included sessions on seniors in the state's African American, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Native American communities.

The other hearings focused on women's aging concerns and the obstacles men face when they become caregivers for aging adults, whether spouses, relatives, or friends. The one focused on LGBT seniors, held in June, was the first of its kind that Yamada held over her six years of chairing the committee.

While the "Faces of Aging" report doesn't call for any specific legislation, it is meant to serve as a resource for lawmakers interested in pursuing bills aimed at addressing senior needs.

"I think just pulling the series off in itself, which had not been done before, it is the tip of the iceberg," said Yamada, who is expected by the end of January to announce her 2016 bid for the District 3 Senate seat covering a number of Bay Area counties. "We did not want to make it a conclusionary - or this is the way it is going to be - series of recommendations. It will be the beginning of the story, not the ending."

Dating back to 2012 Yamada had wanted the Assembly aging committee to hold a hearing specifically focused on LGBT seniors. That idea morphed into having a more expansive look at minority senior populations in the state over the course of her last year in the Assembly.

The report's section on LGBT seniors in the Golden State is by far the longest. It features nine separate reports detailing the various needs of the state's estimated 215,000 LGB people age 55 and older. (There is no statewide data for the transgender senior population.)

Included are two reports specific to the needs of San Francisco's nearly 20,000 LGBT residents 60 years of age or older. They are the work of a special LGBT aging panel the city tasked with making recommendations for how to best meet the needs of its graying queer population.

As the Bay Area Reporter noted in a story last week, the Board of Supervisors is expected to see the first local legislation stemming from the task force's report be introduced this month. It will require city agencies to collect data on the LGBT people they serve as well as require providers of aging services funded by the city to conduct LGBT cultural competency training with their staffs.

"Clearly, cultural competency issues in the LGBT community requires federal and state attention as well as community attention," said Yamada during an interview with the B.A.R. in late December. "It would be a tragedy, specifically in the LGBT community with all the gains that have been made, to not want LGBT elders to feel like they have to go back into the closet in order to get services. We are not going to let that happen."

Also speaking to the B.A.R. late last month, Brown agreed that a main theme from the hearing on LGBT seniors was the need for caregivers to understand their issues in a culturally competent way. Under a new law that took effect January 1, continuing medical education curriculum in the state must now include a discussion of LGBT-specific issues.

"I think that is the biggest issue," said Brown. "In the LGBT community, because of the past, they felt as though people didn't take care of them or didn't understand their needs. Those are things we have to work on."

Brown said she had yet to determine specific aging-related legislation she intends to introduce this year. She said she was reviewing if she should reintroduce a bill that calls for a blue ribbon committee to focus on how the various state departments handle senior issues.

Pointing to the fact that there are 33 different agencies that deal with senior issues, Brown said, "there is a need to have a common place to go to talk about these issues."

Robert MacLaughlin, a gay man who serves as a consultant to the Assembly aging committee, said the oversight body would readdress the issues in the "Faces of Aging" report as part of its work this year.

He also said the committee staff, as part of its assessments of legislation focused on senior issues, could include a segment on how the bills address the needs - or don't - of the various minority senior populations covered by the report.

"When a bill comes through committee, one of the new components of analysis can be how does this bill create environments, or support or enhance welcoming environments of inclusion, in programs and services," said MacLaughlin. "And can this bill be amended to achieve it?"

It is a suggestion Brown said she is likely to adopt.