Lawmakers in California on Wednesday
approved a bill that creates a “bill of rights” for LGBT seniors
in long-term care.
The bill, Senate Bill 219, was authored
by Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, and sponsored
by Equality California, the state's largest LGBT rights advocate. It
helps protect seniors from discrimination or mistreatment in
long-term care facilities.
“These LGBT seniors are the pioneers
who fought for and won the rights and freedoms so many of us enjoy
today,” said Wiener in a statement released by Equality California.
“Supporting these heroes is a moral imperative, especially as they
face discrimination, invisibility, unique health challenges, and
frequent lack of family support. The LGBT Seniors Bill of Rights will
help our elders age with the dignity and respect they have earned a
hundred times over.”
According to a 2011 study conducted by
the National Senior Citizens Law Center, 43 percent of LGBT seniors
have either been abused by caretakers themselves or witnessed that
abuse. Examples given include being turned away or evicted from a
long-term care facility based on sexual orientation or gender
identity, being forced to share a room with a homophobic or
transphobic roommate, and separating same-sex couples.
Opponents of the bill said that it
would force Christians and religious organizations to violate their
faith.
“No religious non-profit should face
criminal prosecution for designating their bathrooms by biological
gender,” Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family
Council, said in a statement posted on the group's website. “Nor
should anyone be forced to use a pronoun for someone that violates
that person's strongly held religious belief that gender is not a
preference, but a biological, medically observable, objective fact.”
Rick Zbur, executive director of
Equality California, said that the bill was needed to “help ensure
that care facilities provide culturally-competent care.”
“After struggling to come out at a
time when same-sex conduct was still criminalized and fighting the
first and most difficult battles for LGBTQ civil rights,
discrimination in long term care is forcing many LGBTQ seniors back
into the closet,” said Zbur. “SB 219 would help protect LGBTQ
seniors when they’re at their most vulnerable, and help ensure that
care facilities provide culturally-competent care.”
California Governor Jerry Brown, a
Democrat, has not publicly announced his position on the bill.