Older LGBTQ adults fear going back "in the closet" upon entering assisted living

[Behind the Aegis]

When Ann Francis and her partner approached their 80s, their list of medical needs grew longer. But they don't have children, the circle of friends in their community that they relied on for care was also aging and they had their own medical problems to tend to.

So when Francis and her partner started looking around for assisted living facilities near their home in Lansing, Michigan, they were disappointed they did not find one in which, as a lesbian couple, they felt welcomed. Once, someone told her they accepted LGBTQ residents, but they "could not guarantee" the other residents would be understanding, she told Salon in a phone interview.

"That was sobering," Francis said. "We did not feel assured that if we had to go into assisted living or a nursing home that we would be respected, that we would be able to be together or that we would even have access to one another."

Eventually, they found a community 200 miles away in Oberlin, Ohio that they felt comfortable in. But that meant leaving behind the supportive community they had built over the past 40 years in Michigan.

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