News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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Posts via daily email:Bush Signs Law Protecting Retirement Savings for Gay Couples
Jim Burroway
December 26th, 2008
President George Bush on Tuesday signed into law the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA). This act requires employers to allow employees to roll their retirement plans over to unmarried partners. Before now, a similar provision of an earlier act was optional:
The Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA), signed by President Bush today, contains technical corrections to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA). PPA made it possible for employers to allow any nonspouse beneficiary of an employee’s retirement plan—including an employee’s same-sex partner—to roll inherited retirement benefits directly to an individual retirement account (IRA) and avoid immediate taxation. WRERA requires that all employers provide this rollover opportunity to nonspouse beneficiaries.
Employers will be required to make this rollover available on January 1, 2010.
National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day
Jim Burroway
September 18th, 2008
It’s today. I had no idea. But it’s a great thing. After all, even though infection rates have remained relatively level, people over 50 now make up the fastest-growing segment of those living with HIV. This is mostly attributable to the fact that people with AIDS and HIV are living longer. What was once a death sentence is now a very serious chronic illness. And as people age — part of the aging process is already about losing immunity — managing HIV/AIDS while simultaneously managing the ordinary effects of aging is a delicate balancing act.
Newsweek as a great series of articles online:
- A Lot of Unknowns: Medical advances are helping many HIV patients live into old age. But that blessing presents its own unique set of tribulations.
- ‘Invisible And Overlooked’: A growing population of lesbian and gay senior citizens seeks recognition for their unique needs and challenges.
- Facts About the Aging Lesbian and Gay Community
You can learn more about issues of aging and the LGBT community at SAGE.
NY Times: “Aging and Gay, and Facing Prejudice in Twilight”
Jim Burroway
October 9th, 2007
The New York Times has an impressive article about the pressures elderly gays and lesbians feel to go back into the closet during their final years. The opening paragraphs tell a common story:
Even now, at 81 and with her memory beginning to fade, Gloria Donadello recalls her painful brush with bigotry at an assisted-living center in Santa Fe, N.M. Sitting with those she considered friends, “people were laughing and making certain kinds of comments, and I told them, ‘Please don’t do that, because I’m gay.’”
The result of her outspokenness, Ms. Donadello said, was swift and merciless. “Everyone looked horrified,” she said. No longer included in conversation or welcome at meals, she plunged into depression. Medication did not help. With her emotional health deteriorating, Ms. Donadello moved into an adult community nearby that caters to gay men and lesbians.
“I felt like I was a pariah,” she said, settled in her new home. “For me, it was a choice between life and death.”
Baby boomers in general are taking a hard look at late-life options for when their own health begins to fail, and many boomers aren’t too happy with the options they see. Gays and lesbians are no different. Fortunately there are new options for elderly gays and lesbians opening up in a few cities across America. And the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is beginning to consult with general-population nursing homes on the special needs that gays and lesbians face.
See also:
Straights Invade Gay Retirement
