LGBTQI+ people over 60 have gone through “particularly challenging” times and many face loneliness and discrimination or are forced to return to “a closet”, issues that will be debated in the first forum on the topic.
This Monday and Tuesday, the first International Forum on LGBTQI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex) aging will take place in Coimbra, organized by the Center for Social Studies (CES), of the University of Coimbra, and, to the Lusa agency, the coordinator explained that it was born from the realization that it is necessary to promote broader reflection on the topic.
Ana Cristina Santos pointed out that the objective is to go beyond the discussion of issues such as health or active aging, “looking at the silences”, taking as a starting point that LGBTQI+ people who are now over 60 years old “throughout their life has gone through particularly challenging times.”
He gave as examples the decriminalization of homosexuality, which only happened in Portugal in 1982, eight years after the 25th of April, or the “stigma associated with the so-called AIDS crisis”.
“These people (…) arrived in the 21st century in contexts where there is finally a legal framework that allows the protection of rights, but this does not mean that this sector of the population feels visible or heard in terms of their expectations as people older”, highlighted the person in charge.
He admitted that there are common and transversal issues, but pointed out that “there are also specificities that are often overlooked” precisely because when talking about old age it is understood that the problems are the same for everyone.
With regard to LGBTQI+ people, the person responsible recalled that they are people who often do not have family ties or an informal support network, “precisely due to discrimination”, because “they saw their family, biological ties, severed from the moment when they came out.”
Ascent/PKS Media Inc.
On the other hand, he said, when these people were younger, same-sex marriage was not guaranteed and neither was parenthood, which explains why many do not have children and, therefore, “loneliness [seja] aggravated.”
“When these people reach a situation in which they need to resort to an institution, in which they feel particularly vulnerable, the reports we have are that they often return to a closet”, he reported.
Ana Cristina Santos explained that “there is an assumption that that person, that user, is heterosexual” and that “in many situations, people do not feel the courage to face this burden, this social expectation”.
“This is psychological violence that is aggravated in these cases and has consequences for their well-being”, he argued. Added to this is the fact that professionals in the areas of gerontology or geriatrics do not have training in these matters.
“We want everyone to feel safe when they enter spaces that are about care, about health, regardless of age and regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity,” he added.
The person responsible stressed, on the other hand, that the forum will not just be used to talk about “suffering, pain or loneliness” and that it also intends to be a moment to celebrate the lives of these people, “precisely as survivors”.
“It is a narrative of liberation that did not exist in the lives of these people when they were 20, 30 or 40 years old for different reasons and that finally, through aging and what is associated with it, emerges with force [e traz] this feeling of finally being able to be who I am”, he pointed out. He highlighted that what is at stake are people who are themselves “authentic archives of unrepeatable historical moments”, through their bodies and their lives.
Ana Cristina Santos explained that the forum focuses on southern European countries, to which several experts were invited, mainly from academia, from several European countries to jointly discuss issues associated with social policies and measures to be implemented. The Forum ends on Tuesday, October 1st, which marks the International Day of the Elderly.
