SAGE Blog

The Top 5 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About the Older Americans Act (OAA)

This is a guest post by Aaron Tax, SAGE’s Director of Federal Government Relations.

May is Older Americans Month, a time to honor elders’ contributions to our communities. The official site encourages all of us to show our support for Older Americans Month by unleashing the power of age in our community. For the month of May, we will feature a story every Wednesday relevant to LGBT older Americans.

Senator Sanders Kick-starts OAA Reauthorization: Tomorrow, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) will introduce a bill to reauthorize the the Older Americans Act (OAA).  Senator Sanders is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, which has jurisdiction over the reauthorization of the OAA. The bill will be introduced at 11am at the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The introduction will be a part of the Older Americans Summit that Senator Sanders and his colleagues are putting together to celebrate Older Americans Month and the bill introduction.

Learn more about the OAA and its implications for LGBT elders by clicking here.

The Top 5 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About the Older Americans Act (OAA)

Council Leaders Identify and Implement LGBT Specific Health Strategies

Credit: Healthy Chicago LGBT Community Action Plan

The following is a guest post by Serena Worthington, SAGE's Director of Community Advocacy and Capacity Building.

Tomorrow begins a new adventure in community service for me. I’ll be attending the first meeting of the newly-formed Chicago LGBT Health Advisory Council which was created to “provide insight and input to the Department of Public Health on implementation of the LGBT Health Action Plan.” The LGBT Health Action Plan is an outline of 22 strategies designed to “improve the overall health of Chicago’s LGBT community.”

Our mayor, Rahm Emanuel, had this nice thing to say about the council.

"Chicago's strength is in the diversity of its communities, and I am committed to ensuring that all Chicagoans have access to the care and information they need to live healthy lives and contribute fully to the vibrancy of our city,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “This advisory council will lend important insight and knowledge to our efforts.”

I am joined by 15 talented and accomplished folks, some of whom I know already and some that I am excited to meet for the first time tomorrow. 

Equality & Justice Day: Sending a Clear Message to Congress to Pass GENDA

Today's post is by Alli Auldridge, SAGE Policy Associate.

 

E&J Day 2012

This morning I boarded a bus at 6:30 am, along with SAGE constituents and fellow staff. We are traveling three hours from New York City to the capitol building in Albany for Equality & Justice Day (simply known as E&J Day). This annual lobbying event is organized by the Empire State Pride Agenda for LGBT New Yorkers—a time for rallies and workshops, networking with statewide advocates and meetings with legislators. SAGE advocates have attended E&J Day every year—indeed 2013 will mark constituent Rodney Adams' 12th year of participation!

 

This year, LGBT advocates of all ages are hoping to send a loud and clear message to elected officials: pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). GENDA would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression and offer uniform protections for transgender New Yorkers across the state. Recent GENDA campaigns by Housing Works, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the Empire State Pride Agenda and others have highlighted the personal stories of discrimination and bias experienced by transgender New Yorkers and increased the call for the passage of GENDA in 2013. All of us at SAGE are eager to join with other LGBT advocates and make our voices heard at E&J Day.

Stay tuned to SAGE's Facebook and Twitter pages for updates from Albany throughout the day!

Health Equity for LGBT Older People of Color

Screenshot of SAGE's new policy report

This is a guest post by Robert Espinoza, SAGE's Senior Director for Public Policy and Communications. April is National Minority Health Month and in today's post, Robert writes about the health disparities faced by LGBT older people of color and the release of SAGE's new policy report "Health Equity and LGBT Elders of Color.” The report can be downloaded here.

This post was originally featured on the Huffington Post, and can also be seen on the Diverse Elders Coalition’s website. 

Helena Bushong is 60, transgender and living with HIV/AIDS. In 2002, she was dually diagnosed with HIV and AIDS and given six months to live. Ty Martin is an aging advocate who leads a support group for older gay black men with HIV/AIDS in the historic Harlem neighborhood of New York City. His group members grapple with stigma, the questions related to accelerated aging as HIV-positive people, and a general longing for community. Both Helena and Ty are LGBT and people of color. And both of them combat the health disparities and socio-economic challenges associated with aging as people who are marginalized on multiple fronts—a reality rarely discussed in the mainstream aging field or in the popular LGBT rights movement. The virtual silence on this subject lives out in their personal and political lifespans. 

Inside the Supreme Court Marriage Equality Hearings

This is a post by Aaron Tax, SAGE’s Director of Federal Government Relations. He attended the Prop 8 and DOMA hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and tweeted live from the steps of the Supreme Court. Visits twitter.com/sageusa to follow all the latest news.

I had the good fortune to attend the Supreme Court hearings this week on Prop 8 and DOMA. However, after standing in line in the dark and the cold on two long consecutive mornings, the last thing I wanted to hear from the Supreme Court was anything about standing (albeit standing of a different variety).  Given the long and circuitous procedural paths each of the cases took to get to the Supreme Court, that was, however, one of the common themes over two days of arguments on same-sex marriage.  The first day focused on whether individuals have a Constitutional right to get married  to someone of the same sex. The second focused on whether the federal government must recognize those marriages.  I was fortunate to be able to spend some time with Edie, the named plaintiff in the second case, Windsor v. United States.

 

Aaron Tax and Edie Windsor

 

Edie’s Day in Court

Today the Supreme Court will hear the case United States v. Windsor, the indomitable Edie Windsor’s challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Her case highlights how DOMA prevents older same-sex couples from equal access to key supports like Social Security, Medicaid, veterans benefits and retiree benefits like spousal health care coverage—which has real and lasting impacts on LGBT elder’s health and financial security. As Edie takes her fight—which has become the fight of all LGBT older people—to our nation’s highest court, SAGE is proud to stand alongside her.

5 Possible Outcomes for Today's Historic Prop 8 Case

Supreme Court clerk, Aaron Tax and others waiting for the Prop 8 case to be heard

This is a guest post by Aaron Tax, SAGE’s Director of Federal Government Relations

Today, the Supreme Court is hearing the “Prop 8 Case,” officially called Hollingsworth v. Perry.  It’s the first of two marriage cases the Court will hear this week—the other being SAGE constituent Edie Windsor challenging DOMA. As framed by scotusblog, the two issues at stake in today’s case are:

1. "Whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the State of California from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman; and
2. whether petitioners have standing under Article III, § 2 of the Constitution in this case.”

SAGE Proudly Supports Supreme Court DOMA Challenge

By Michael Adams, Executive Director of SAGE

 

Me and Edie Windsor at New York City's 2012 Pride Parade.

Today, we move one step closer to what is sure to be a momentous event in American history: on March 27, the Supreme Court will hear the case of United States v. Windsor, a powerful legal challenge to the notorious Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). More specifically, the Windsor lawsuit challenges Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing the marriages of same-sex couples even though they  are already legally married under state law. SAGE is among more than 40 groups that today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Edie Windsor’s case; we’re joined in our brief by the American Society on Aging, National Hispanic Council on Aging, National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, National Senior Citizens Law Center, and Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.

SAGE has been proud to support Edie during every step of her challenge to DOMA. Some background: Edie and her spouse Thea Spyer were a committed couple who got engaged in 1967 and were finally able to legally marry 40 years later. (If you’re a Netflix member, you can watch a very moving documentary about their life together.) When Thea passed away after a long battle with multiple sclerosis, Edie was forced to pay a large estate tax that she would not have had to pay had she been married to a man. Not willing to remain silent about this gross injustice, Edie sued the federal government for failing to recognize her marriage. On October 18, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan sided with Edie, ruling that DOMA unconstitutionally discriminates against married same-sex couples. Shortly thereafter, on December 7, the Supreme Court announced that it would take and decide Edie’s case.

Presidential Inaguration 2013: The Obama Administration and LGBT Aging Issues

 

President Obama and the First Lady with Tony Schmidt and SAGE Constituent Jerry Hoose

The following is a guest post by Aaron Tax, Director of Federal Government Relations at SAGE.

 

Today is the second inauguration of President Barack Obama. It’s a great day to celebrate the President’s accomplishments from the past four years and to look forward to what we hope will be four more years of progress for LGBT older adults.

As you know, President Obama has done a tremendous amount for all LGBT people during his first term–from signing the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, to issuing a memorandum on hospital visitation (providing for same-sex partner visitation and medical decision-making) and being the first sitting President to come out (so to speak) in support of marriage equality.  The list goes on and on.