Among the most neglected sectors of the LGBTQIA community are the seniors, and so there is a need to ensure that LGBTQIA-centric efforts include them.
This was stressed by Ladlad, the pioneering LGBTQIA political party in the Philippines, and Golden Bekis, an organization for senior LGBTQIA people based in Baclaran in Pasay City.
“The LGBTQIA community members know of the issues faced by senior LGBTQIA people,” Kyle Mendrez, founder of Golden Bekis, said in the vernacular, citing – among others – the difficulties with making a living because there are no livelihood opportunities for them because of their age and their SOGIESC, as well as their isolation because of their inability to form families as LGBTQIA people.
Sadly, added Santy Layno, spokesperson and member of the Board of Trustees of Ladlad, even the LGBTQIA community is not doing enough to better the plight of these seniors. Many still believe, she said also in the vernacular, that these seniors are at fault for how their lives turned out because “they just wasted their lives when they were younger.”
And yet “based on my encounters with them, some used to be professionals who looked after their relatives, who, eventually, left these LGBTQIA seniors,” Layno said, adding that even though they helped others, they still ended up dumped by people they helped.
This is why, stressed Mendrez, there is a need to make sure that efforts for the LGBTQIA community include these seniors to make sure “we all attain the goal of having better lives.”
“Visit them,” Layno urged, adding that “more than the monetary needs, they also need to be heard… not just by LGBTQIA people but by all. So when able, visit them.” – WITH MICHAEL DAVID dela Cruz TAN
