Contact us at: josken_at_zipworld_com_au

THE DAREBIN CONNECTION

The home of Inter~Section Melbourne is in the local government area of the city of Darebin. It is therefore natural that this is the first local government area to be explored in relation to issues concerning sexual minority service provision - or lack thereof - by that council.

In September 2001 the City of Darebin, in its column in the local newspaper, the Preston Leader, invited public comment on its "DRAFT AGED AND DISABILITY SERVICES STRATEGY".

The document was made available on Council's web site, www.darebin.vic.gov.au/cccc.html

Inter~Section obtained a copy and submitted comments before the closing date of 28 September 2001 as follows:

Darebin City Council

Attn: Paula Weekley,

Customer Services Centre

274 Gower Street, Preston 3072

Re: Draft Aged and Disability Services Strategy

Submission of Comments on the Draft Document from Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett Unit 2, 12 Murphy Grove, Preston, Vic 3072 (PO Box 1675 Preston South Vic 3072) Telephone (03)9471 4878 email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au

Wednesday 26 September 2001

Executive Summary

In the Executive Summary you state that a number of factors demanded the review. The impression though is that apart from Council's concern over its future ability to meet its financial contribution to the increasing cost of its aged and disability services, it would seem that the changing nature of the ageing population and the expected increased demand for these services were basically the reasons for the review.

However you don't define the changing nature of this ageing population. It is in this area where we wish to concentrate our comments, in particular under lifestyle which doesn't appear to be covered by the review team.

Findings

1) You say that a significant increase in the younger aged (65-70) will appear from 2010. We suggest that this has to do with lifestyle. If a healthy ageing framework is to be achieved some especially significant changes in lifestyles since the 1960s need to be recognised.

2) Recently Victoria has passed new legislation that recognises that there are now three categories of official relationships: heterosexual marriage, heterosexual de facto, and sexual minority (lesbian, gay and transgender) domestic partnership.

3) To date senior citizens are regarded by all community services as heterosexual, either married, single, divorced, male or female. Now aged services have to recognisedomestic partners and educate staff about this emerging official group and provide for their needs.

4) Domestic partnerships are not new, only the title is. In the past lesbians and gays were expected to keep quiet about their relationships. Since the 1960s in Australia they have been coming out of the closet and being more open about their sexual relationships.

5) In your Findings you state (Para 3) that perceived benefits of participation in group social and recreational activities were not limited to the specific activities but included emotional support. Frustrations were expressed including the method and equity of support provided, difficulties for emerging groups to gain assistance, the level and quality of communication with Council staff.

6) You could have been referring to the experiences encountered by lesbians or gay men or transgendered people in these findings. Probably the frustrations were not identified as being from any such because gays and lesbians, even after 40 years of activism, find that they are unwelcome or shunned if they express their opinions in social and recreational activities when in need of emotional support accorded to heterosexual people.

7) There was a survey and report done in NSW for the Sutherland Shire (Southern Sydney) in 1996 entitled The Tolerance Report. This project uncovered the widespread ignorance and the extent of the direct and indirect discrimination against sexual minorities in community services.

A group was formed called InterSection to follow up on The Tolerance Report and discovered that the report's findings were borne out throughout metropolitan and country council areas resulting in the NSW Local Government and Shires Association (LGSA) (November 1999) agreeing to ”develop policy regarding support for the social and cultural needs of the gay and lesbian community in NSW.” (Attached: See InterSection ”More than Tolerance” - summary of The Tolerance Report.)

8) A similar study presented in Birmingham (England, July 2000) by Nigel George, a researcher at University College London, found that older lesbians and homosexual men are neglected by social and health services intended to help pensioners because the services concentrate on heterosexuals. The researcher, Nigel George, said that older homosexuals did not feel that they fitted in anywhere and were a source of ill-will in certain mainstream services for older people such as day centres or residential care homes. HIV education programmes concentrated almost exclusively on young homosexuals in the mistaken assumption that homosexual men did not remain sexually active into old age.

9) In an interview in the Miami Herald (USA, 2 July 2000) Edda Cimino (70 plus) suffering from diabetes, heart and respiratory troubles, belongs to the first generation of openly gay seniors grappling with retirement, said she wouldn't feel comfortable at a straight retirement home with retired housewives. But there is one thing the retired schoolteacher Cimino knows, she will never creep back into the closet.

10) Jo Harrison, researcher at the University of South Australia, in a published article, Reforming Australian Gerontology, (24 January 2000) states that Australian gerontologists routinely discuss concerns related to family, caregivers, income maintenance, social support and community networks all from a perspective of heteronormativity. Federal policy on care for elders makes no mention of gay and lesbian needs. Given these cicumstances, gays and lesbians are virtually invisible in gerontology in Australia. She goes on to say that homophobia and heterosexism within services for the ageing need to be challenged.

She also noted the dominance of religious organisations in care for older adults. These religious organisations are most resistant to providing gay supportive services. Harrison quotes an activist interviewee: “One of the comments we've had when we complain about homophobia from home support workers is that the service doesn't discriminate - which means they don't acknowledge that there can be special needs of gays and lesbians in terms of training for their workers.”

11) In conclusion, we trust that Darebin staff training programmes will include positive education about homophobia, much the same as racism is responded to, so that violently homophobic people are not employed. Furthermore we would like to think that recognition of sexual minorities (lesbians, gays and transgendered people) will be accorded access and equity in all Council services in the future.

You appear to have a very impressive and diverse Aged and Disability Services Review Team. It would be encouraging to discover that these key Council people agree with us oldies that not everyone is straight in the Garden State!

Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett

REPLY FROM DAREBIN COUNCIL

1 October 2001

Dear Mannie and Kendall,

Draft Aged & Disability Services Strategy Feedback

On behalf of Aged and Disability Services at Darebin Council, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your constructive feedback to the Draft Strategy. Your response is well-considered and invaluable in the ongoing process of identifying and meeting the needs of our diverse older community.

In developing the consultation plan for Community Attitudes to Ageing, questions were incorporated into the Focus Group Study about exploring the needs of older people with diverse life experiences and circumstances. This included ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender and living alone. While there were no specific issues identified in relation to sexuality, we do not assume that none exist and recognise that more research is needed at the local level in this area.

Your feedback will be incorporated into the Final Strategy and into Continuous Improvement Plans for all services to ensure staff have adequate training and awareness of diverse needs and we look forward to continued dialogue about these issues.

Please telephone me if you have further comments or queries.

Yours faithfully
(Signed) Paula Weekley
Service Planning and Policy Officer
Aged and Disability Services

---

Return to Inter~Section Home Page

LETTER TO COUNCIL ON THE AGEING AND NATIONAL SENIORS ASSOCIATION

We sent you the letter below and as we have received no acknowledgement, we are writing to confirm that you received it. Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett

To: nsaceo@nationalseniors.com.au Subject: (Fwd) ageing gay and lesbians in the community Date sent: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 01:00:58 +1100

To: nsaceo@nationalseniors.com, cota@cota.org.au Subject: ageing gay and lesbians in the community Date sent: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 00:57:30 +1100

We are writing to ask what provisions your organisations have made to deal with the issue of ageing gays and lesbians in the community.

We are aware that a great deal of discrimination occurs -both official and unofficial in dealing with the human rights issues of those of us in the community who happen to be gay or lesbian. As examples, the Federal Government's superannuation laws do not allow same- sex partner benefits, hospital visits by a same-sex partner can be denied, pensions for partners of same-sex partners are not available. All Federal laws discriminate against gays and lesbians.

At a different level, when gays or lesbians have to enter nursing homes there are homophobic attacks against them and their same-sex partners, and also staff in nursing homes who happen to be gay or lesbian are often discriminated against to their disadvantage.

We are concerned that little effort has been made by groups representing the ageing members of the community to address the issues confronting gays and lesbians.

When we lived in New South Wales we were part of a group which was formed to address the treatment of sexual minorities in local government areas, and successfully managed to get these issues into policy documents of the Local Government Association in that state. Now that we are living in Victoria we are hoping to be able to effect changes in local government areas where discrimination is still a major issue for sexual minorities in the community.

We are ultimately aiming to effect equal human rights changes for sexual minorities at state and federal levels, and we ask you to inform us of your organisations' intentions in this regard.

Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett PO Box 1675 Preston South Vic 3072 Phone: (03)9471 4878 email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au

RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL ON THE AGEING (COTA) 4 APRIL 2003

Thanks for sending this research.

I apologise for delay in answering your original letter, I am still collecting information from our 8 state organisations about any specific activities/policy/advocacy they have done.

In terms of membership we recognise same sex couples for joint membership.

In Victoria we have worked with Vintage Men, an organisation for gay older men. Members have also raised the issue of feeling a need to "return to the closet" when seeking supported accommodation.

We have no national policy. We are just in the process of implementing new policy development processes involving members, I will raise your issue.

I will write again when I have more complete information.

Patricia

Patricia Reeve Director National Policy Secretariat COTA National Seniors Level 2, 3 Bowen Cres Melbourne 3004 Phone: 03 9820 2655 Mobile: 0409810249

REPLY FROM NATIONAL SENIORS ASSOCIATION (NSA)

----- Original Message ----- From: Rosalind Weaver To: josken_at_zip_com_au Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 4:52 PM

Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett

I refer to your e-mail of 5 March 2003.

National Seniors Association is a membership organisation for people aged 50 and over, with a membership of over 230,000 people.

We have available single or joint memberships. Our joint membership is offered to couples living in the same household and does not discriminate on the basis of gender or marital status.

National Seniors makes representation to Local, State and Federal Governments on all issues of concern to its members, issues which are raised for debate and voting on at Branch meetings and ultimately incorporated in our Policy Documents.

As yet, our members have not raised the issue of discrimination against lesbian or homosexual seniors in the areas you refer to - superannuation, pension, aged care - or any others. However, should it be raised by members for inclusion in our policy development, the issue will undergo the same fair and impartial process of debate and voting.

I hope this information is of assistance.

Yours sincerely

David Deans Chief Executive

LETTER FROM Inter~Section MELBOURNE TO FIFTY~PLUS NEWS

Margaret Riddle, Managing Editor, Fifty-Plus News, 288 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy Vic 3065. email: tellword@vicnet.net.au

Sunday, 18 May 2003

From: Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett, InterSection, PO Box 1675, Preston South Vic 3072. email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au Tel: 9471 4878

Your anonymous letter writer about elder abuse (May 2003) asks for other readers' comments on the issue. We certainly would like to air a situation which no one talks about, abuse and discrimination of those in the community who happen to be ageing lesbians, gay men and transgender people.

In 1997 an activist group, InterSection, was formed in NSW to highlight the covert discriminatory attitudes to lesbians, gays and transgendered people in local government services. It was instrumental in having the NSW Local Government & Shires Assn agree to a resolution “to develop policy regarding support for the social and cultural needs of the gay and lesbian community in NSW.”

As two of the founding members of InterSection, when we came to live in Melbourne, we set it up here. Our website is www.zipworld.com.au/~josken

Discrimination occurs officially and unofficially and enables abuse to occur against sexual minorities. Heterosexist language and the expectations of organisers can also be barriers to participation of same-sex couples in research projects on the health and well- being of an ageing population.

Because service providers and health professionals do not acknowledge our existence in mainstream service promotions, gays, lesbians and transgendered people know from experience that the fear myths of proselytising and propositioning will isolate them even more so as elders than when they were mobile and in gainful employment.

The attitudes of staff and residents particularly in care establishments are generally dismissive and homophobic.The fact that Federal Government laws on super benefits do not cover same-sex partners adds to discriminatory abuse. As well, same-sex partners do not have the same rights as heterosexual couples in hospitals and nursing homes. Even visiting rights are purely discretional for a same-sex partner and no intestate rights. This is particularly abusive if a same-sex partner dies intestate having shared house and home with the partner for years.

Now that COTA and National Seniors have joined forces, InterSection is planning to alert the organisation to the needs of those of us who do not regard ourselves as heterosexual in orientation.

Sincerely, Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett for InterSection Melbourne

---

BRIEF REPORT

on a couple of Seniors Meetings in Melbourne attended by Mannie & Ken

Tuesday, 24 June 2003: Council on the Ageing ( COTA) Seminar in City Central

Title: “What must be done to make Community Services work better?”

Attendance: 100 including representatives from various aged care services but it was noticeably short of Asian and Aboriginal people. Coordinator: Vivienne McCutcheon Panel: Five speakers, including the Vic Minister for Aged Care, Gavin Jennings. Other speakers were Sue Hendy (COTA), Jean Elder (Myer Foundation 2020 Vision Project), Jane Mussared (Community Services, Aged Care & Housing Group South Australia), and Jeannine Jacobson (Vic Department of Health Service DHS).

General Impressions

All the speakers talked intelligently about the broader issues but no mention of GLBTI issues having ever intruded into their consciousnesses. Pressures were identified and recognised as needing attention and where the system was falling down. The underlying problem that kept emerging in the presentations seemed to be that there was too much fragmentation of funding.

Apparently there are 17 separate streams of funding for different aged care services that come from Federal Government sources and 15 from the State Government. All these it seems aren’t able to be allocated anywhere else other than to the specifically designated service. This fact accounted for the kind of “bed blockage” in Victoria’s public hospitals which has become the sad reality.

Comments

Audience participation was limited to Questions to the Panel at the end of the 2-hour Seminar. There was no break until after the roughly half-hour question time. We pointed out that two & a half hours is too long for seniors to sit without a break. Furthermore, we said we should have been able to put our comments or questions after each presentation. As it was, the Minister left soon after he had opened proceedings with a speech about how supportive his government was of seniors and of aged care services, so no one got the chance to question him, not even the panel members. (Did he perhaps feel intimidated by the strength in the meeting?)

We wonder because there was less than a dozen men in the audience which meant he was facing near enough 90 or more women.

We asked the panel why they thought so few men had attended. We didn’t get an answer probably because when we managed to put our question (obviously we would get only the one chance considering the size of the audience and the time factor) so put our question in three parts. The main one of course was that as same-sex partners we would like to know what training care workers receive regarding the needs of older lesbians and gay men in the community. None was the answer from the executive director of COTA, as far as she knew.

Nevertheless, it prompted a couple of positive comments from the audience directed to us. One in particular came from a service provider who said that as someone who allocated places in care establishments she tried to make sure that gays were able to share the same room. It was important to her because she was a lesbian and would expect that consideration herself. At least by identifying ourselves as gays, we allowed her to do the same.

There were many good questions and comments from the audience. One was from a woman who said she would like to know of someone who could be depended upon to come and put a new washer on a tap and that sort of thing --small things she was unable to do herself. Was there such a service available as part of homecare? Another woman said that the issues she was hearing from the speakers were the same ones she had been hearing for the past 15 years but why hadn’t there been any discussion by the speakers about suicide in the aged community.

Interestingly, a woman sitting next to us saw that we had a copy of the ALSO booklet, “Over the Rainbow” Guide to the law in Victoria for lesbians and gay men. She said she had never seen it before and where could she get a copy, We provided her with the necessary information. It turned out she was on the policy committee of COTA.

Saturday, 28 June 2003: The ALSO Foundation 2003 COMMUNITY FORUMS

Title: “The Needs of Older Gay, Lesbian & Transgender People Project” Held in Heidelberg West, this was the third and Final Forum in this series. ALSO will publish a Full Report on the findings of all three in a couple of months we were told.

Attendance: Between 30 to 40 people (roughly gender parity)

Coordinators: Heather and Darryl.

Format: After welcoming the audience the coordinators explained why ALSO had organised the Forums and the audience was invited to participate by providing input to a range of questions based on the needs, currently and in the future, of non-hetero seniors.

The coordinators would each present the questions to us in two separate groups with women in one group with Heather, and men with Darryl in the other. We then broke into two groups and went to separate rooms in the community centre in which we were meeting.

General Impressions

In the men’s group the discussion got going quickly when one of the group asked if there was someone like a gay guardian or gay ombudsman who could be contacted to advise on particular problems being experienced such as in home care, hospitalisation etc. He said many older gay men, especially those who live alone, prefer to talk to someone who is gay and can understand their reticence in seeking advice from some straights. Maybe there could be some kind of register that could indicate gay friendly doctors, gay friendly nursing homes or hospitals and especially gay doctors prepared to make house calls to frail older gay men or their partners. He thought that it may be a service for ALSO to undertake. Others suggested that it could be a service SWITCHBOARD may consider if extra funding could be made available for such a service.

Others in the group were keen on a facility which would provide some kind of venue for older gays and lesbians different from the current commercial venues which catered mainly to younger gays. They thought even a coffee shop --somewhere that would get them out of their homes to mix with other older gays-- even somewhere they could go at night-time, not necessarily just during the daytime. Someone asked if anyone remembered a scheme which had received a lot of support from gay men who subscribed to it more or less along the lines of what was being suggested. Nevertheless, the project had foundered without trace. He thought it could be revived and perhaps started up in a central position such as East Melbourne.

One of the group wasn’t enthusiastic. He said that it was okay for city seniors but what about country gays. He said the census had indicated that Ballarat had the most gay couples of any country town in Victoria but where are they? He thought it was a bit of a myth because rural Victoria had the majority of gay suicides which the whole gay community needed to address.

Darryl was asked about a rumour which was circulating outside the State that Victoria’s government had allocated a large amount of money for a GLBTI Health Resource Centre and did ALSO know anything about such a grant? He said this was probably a promise made at election time last year but the money wasn’t for ALSO or to any other organisation. He understood that it was being reserved for university GLBTI research projects.

The discussion also highlighted the religious bias in the community against us. One of the group said he felt that it was over-emphasised. Others disagreed. They said that a large percentage of aged care facilities are run by religious organisations which meant that bible-based discrimination against us is practised unhindered because religious beliefs or religious principles are exempted in the Equal Opportunity Act (see P.10 in the ALSO “Over the Rainbow” Guide to the law). One of those present said you only had to live in rural Victoria to discover homophobia is very much alive and church-based.

One of the group got up and walked out of the discussion apparently because he considered it to be too city-centred and that the participants were unwilling to be concerned about the plight of older gays in rural towns outside Melbourne.

Other comments included writing letters to mainstream seniors newspapers such as The Victorian Senior, The Australian Senior and Fifty-Plus News to air your views; work with your local Council who are the ones who provide services to seniors. Alert them to your needs as a gay senior. Most Councils don’t believe we exist in their area. Give our gay media --newspapers, Joy radio and Bent TV (Channel 31)-- a serve on occasions about the needs of lesbian and gay seniors. It was also suggested that it’s worthwhile to turn up to some of the seminars and meetings organised by the mainstream seniors organisations (Council on the Ageing/ National Seniors) and let them know that we exist and are not prepared to go back into the closet just because our hair has turned to silver. These organisations have to include us in their policy documents and recognise our legitimacy.

It was pointed out towards the end of the session that there were no Asian or Aboriginal gays or trannies amongst us at the forum --in other words ethnic people-- who certainly must be around.

Kendall Lovett for InterSection

For additional information on Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Ageing, see also:

InterSection Part 3

Inter~Section Part 1 - Introduction to Inter~Section

Inter~Section Part 2 - Information and Details

Inter~Section Part 3a - Reports of gay, lesbian and transgender ageing issues of seminars, forums, consultations, Newcastle and Sydney, July 2004

Inter~Section Part 4 - Darebin Council and Sexual Minority Issues

Inter~Section Part 5 - Links to documents and sites relating to Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Ageing and other Sexual Minority and Local Government Issues

Civil Service Gay and Lesbian Ageing (in the UK)

Gay and Lesbian Ageing Issues in Australia

Social Care Needs Of Older Gay Men and Lesbians On Merseyside

BACK TO LESBIAN & GAY SOLIDARITY PAGE

Return to Mannie & Ken's Home Page