Successful day for Age Concern Cymru at the 2007 Cardiff Mardi Gras
For the first time, Age Concern Cymru organised an exhibition stand at the Cardiff Mardi Gras over the weekend (1 September 2007) and was inundated with requests for help and information from older gay and lesbian people.
The charity decided to host an exhibition stand at this year’s event because the issue of ‘coming out’ for any homosexual person can be traumatic but for an older person the experience can be particularly acute.
Age Concern Cymru’s Deborah Boyce said: “Many of the visitors to our stand were pleasantly surprised about the amount of information we produce for older gay and lesbian people. Our information on benefits for same sex couples, planning for later life as a same sex couple, and organising civil partnerships just flew off our shelves.
“Many people also congratulated us for our work towards making age discrimination as socially unacceptable as other forms of discrimination.”
Speaking prior to the event the Director of Age Concern Cymru, Robert Taylor, explained about some of the difficulties facing older gay and lesbian people: “Many older gay men and lesbian women who were young between the 1930’s and the 1950’s remember when homosexual relationships were illegal in the UK, leading to many of them remaining silent about their sexuality.
“This silence creates problems when life begins to demand more help from others. Care workers, for example, may not realise that their patient’s ‘good friend’ is in fact a life long partner, while other older people report being completely disenfranchised from their families because of their sexuality.
“So it is important for Age Concern Cymru to reach out to older lesbian and gay people to let them know that help and support is available.”
Age Concern Cymru recently set up the Older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) network to help raise the profile of the main issues affecting these groups of people and to influence policy and services for older LGBT people.
The Network has produced a campaigning action card that has been widely distributed to AM’s and service providers in Wales.
One of the key objectives of the Network is to work towards ensuring that all older LGBT people have their needs assessed without prejudice and in an appropriate manner. The Network believes that this is a matter of social justice and equality.
For more information about our work contact Age Concern Cymru on 029 2043 1555.
Ends.
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