By Laurens Van Sluytman and Victor Pond

This past October marked another milestone in the gay rights movement, when the first National Convening of LGBT People of Color (POC) Aging Professionals met in Washington, D.C.

With generous support from AARP, The Atlantic Philanthropies, GRIOT Circle, and in collaboration with the POC “HotSpot” Committee of ASA’s LGBT Aging Issues Network (LAIN), the Convening brought together more than 50 national LGBT POC leaders, government officers, researchers, activists, program managers and graduate studentsto exchange knowledge about health disparities gained through decades of community and organizational building.

According to Cathy Croghan, a geriatric community health consultant and researcher in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., little was known until recently about whether or not aging services providers were ready to work with LGBT clients. What was known suggested they were unprepared (with little or no LGBT-related staff training, targeted services or outreach). And it was clear there was a direct need for improvements in the quality of care afforded LGBT elders of color, who are often “thrice hidden” because of discrimination on three levels: ageism, racism and homophobia.

One Convening speaker, Dr. Kyaien O. Conner from the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Geriatric Psychiatry, pointed out that LGBT POC Elders are at a distinct disadvantage to their white-heterosexual peers in that they are less likely to benefit from preventive care, more likely to suffer from serious illness and less likely to have access to quality healthcare.

These outcomes are related to reduced access to comprehensive insurance, high rates of poverty and delays in accessing medical care in the LGBT POC populace. Dr. Conner said significant resources need to be directed toward developing policies and programs to address the complex disparities within this population.

At the same time, the growing number of these elders and their increasing degree of openness and demands for fair and equal treatment further challenge the existing elder-care system, and signal an urgent need for the care system’s radical transformation.

As resources dwindle in this recession era, moving constituencies from a marginalized position to viable advocacy and lobbying bodies becomes essential to ensure adequate representation and critical decision-making. These efforts require a clear vision, and Convening attendees emerged with such a vision.

Their path forward calls for building an agenda to address disparities in accessing services, support, housing, income, economic and health security. Such efforts require promoting cross-cultural and linguistically competent interdisciplinary, evidence-based treatments and interventions in treatment and healthcare settings targeted specifically to the POC LGBT elder. One example would be employing the 14 national standards in CLAS (Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services; http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=15), which concern cultural competence training, diverse hiring, language assistance and community collaboration.

To get involved, or for more information on the Convening and its ongoing work, please visit: www.griotcircle.org.

Laurens Van Sluytman is assistant professor of social work at Morgan State University. Victor Pond is NVL partner and director of policy, research and community health at GRIOT Circle, Inc.