From dealing with transphobia and social isolation to the difficulties in accessing vital medical care, Caomhán Keane gets the inside story.

Statistics from the Visible Lives study in 2011 showed that 40pc of the older people surveyed were not ‘out’ to their health care provider and many feared that healthcare staff would not understand or would discriminate against them because they were LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender).

There is little evidence to show that that figure has improved following the same-sex marriage referendum in 2015. Some 14pc of calls to the LGBT Helpline last year were from older LGBT+ people. Of that figure, 77pc were based in rural Ireland and many were distressed over the lack of social supports, isolation, and loneliness.

“A straight older person might go into a church or join the retirement club,” says Paula Fagan, CEO of the LGBT Helpline.

“The people we are talking to don’t feel comfortable doing this. They are less likely to be out, feel disconnected from straight people of a similar age and LGBT services weren’t available in their area. We deal with a lot of internalised homophobia and transphobia.”

After the Visible Lives survey was published, the LGBT Helpline tried to reach out to the people mentioned in the report. But a lot of the organisations responsible for the elderly didn’t see it as an issue.

Paula adds that after the Marriage Equality referendum passed, providers realised they didn’t have LGBT people in their services because members of the LGBT community didn’t feel comfortable speaking to them. “And that was a problem,” she says.

To help target this invisibility, the LGBT Helpline has launched a National Poster Campaign, in conjunction with Nursing Homes Ireland, Sage Advocacy, Alone, and Age & Opportunity, to raise awareness of the helpline and support services available to older LGBT people.

“So much of this is based around the fact that the current language and imagery is heteronormative,” says Paula.

“From the minute you walk in the door of a nursing home or a clinic, what you see is pictures of heterosexual couples smiling at each other. The medical forms are framed in a male-female context, assuming that the person will have been in a hetero relationship.

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