There is a new statewide virtual community for LGBTQ+ elders.
It is a secure, private network on the Mighty Network platform. They currently have eight well-qualified hosts and moderators and 400 members, and they are growing all the time. They offer a general members’ chat, a monthly banned book club on Zoom, likewise a meteorology group, and a group on legal subjects, with more offerings coming.
They offer technical help, so technical inexperience is no hindrance to participation.
Recently in the general chat someone provided a link to a summary of findings by the National Council on Aging, comparing LGBTQ+ elders to those for elders generally, on economic and other indicators. They worked in conjunction with the Leading Age LTSS Center at UMass Boston and used data from the Federal Reserve’s annual study, Survey of Household Economics and Decision-making (SHED): https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/shed.htm
The data were for 2019 to 2021, for the 60-and-over LGBTQ+ population.
Key findings: LGBTQ+ elders are worse off financially, despite 40% of them being married. They have lower household income and have trouble paying their rent or mortgage and utilities. And they are more than twice as likely to have experienced discrimination.
If you are an LGBTQ+ elder and are interested in exploring what this virtual community has to offer, ask Dody Adkins-Perry for an email invitation to join the community. (If she hasn’t mastered the process of sending you an invitation, she’ll send you a link to their website.)
Image credit: Creative Commons/Public domain
