- Victoria A. Brownworth
As the First Out LGBTQ Generation Ages, Can Their Challenges be Met?
December 15, 2022 Philadelphia Gay News

Part one of a three-part series.
At 69, Aviva Rosen says she is getting old.
“That 70 milestone is just months away, and leaving my 60s and heading into my 70s feels like a real sea-change,” Rosen said. “I’m not sure I’m ready. I’m not ready to retire and I’m not ready to not-retire. Money feels like it could be an issue for us. So does health. ”
Rosen’s partner of the past 19 years, Reece Davis, is 75. Davis, who retired last year from her job in health administration, says, “We are starting to have real worries about the stability of our future and what services there are for gay people like us who don’t have family to care for us as we age.”
Both women told PGN that their biggest fears were of being separated and forced to leave their small row home on a quiet tree-lined street in Northwest Philadelphia, the home where Davis has lived for over 30 years and the couple have lived together with their dogs for nearly 20.
“Our health is manageable now,” said Rosen, a social worker. “But we are well aware that we are one fall or one bout of pneumonia away from having to consider moving to assisted living, which we know is not queer-friendly. We just don’t want that. We want to stay here, together, for the rest of our lives.”
As the first generation of out LGBT people post-Stonewall is getting older, the concerns that Rosen and Davis voiced are increasingly common. Statistically, older Americans want to “age in place” and remain in their homes. Myriad in-home healthcare services have sprung up in recent years to address those needs and wishes. Yet as the New York Times reported earlier this month, so-called “kinless” seniors are a growing demographic, complicating those desires. The Times reported “An estimated 6.6 percent of American adults aged 55 and older have no living spouse or biological children, according to a study published in 2017 in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.”
While Rosen and Davis are partnered, many older LGBT people fall into that category of lacking a spouse or partner, children and biological siblings. This is more true of gay men and trans people than of lesbians, yet the data on how LGBT people are aging, what their needs are, and if those needs are being met, remains disturbingly scant overall.
America itself is aging. Baby boomers — people born after World War II between 1946 and 1964 — remain a large U.S. age demographic. According to U.S. Census figures, there are more than 46 million older adults aged 65 and older living in the U.S. By 2050, that number is expected to reach 90 million. In Pennsylvania, the percentage of people 65+ is above the national average at 19%. That number has ticked up over three percent in the last ten years.
How do those numbers translate for LGBT people? The percentage of U.S. adults who self-identify as LGBT rose to a new high of 7.1% in 2022, according to a Gallup poll. That number is double the percentage from 2012, when Gallup first measured it.
According to this polling, among LGBT Americans, 57% identify as bisexual, 21% identify as gay, 14% as lesbian, 10% as transgender and 4% as something else. Those percentages translate into millions of LGBT people, and within those demographics are many LGBT elders.
The question some are working hard to answer is: what’s next for elderly LGBT people as they age? Organizations like Movement Advancement Project, SAGE (Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders), Center for American Progress, and local programs like the William Way Community Center’s Elder Initiative are all working to compile data.
The Movement Advancement Project notes, “While confronted with the same challenges that face all people as they age, LGBTQ elders also face an array of unique barriers and inequalities that can stand in the way of a healthy and rewarding later life.”
