Where can senior lesbians, gays, and bisexuals live?: Exploring sexual minority acceptance in senior living communities
Abstract
There are roughly one to three million seniors in the United States who self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. However, there is a staggering lack of senior living communities (SLC) that cater to or are openly accepting of this population. While the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) population continues to be an under-researched minority group, the senior LGB population has exponentially less focused research. The following research aims to discover if there are more accepting SLCs than found in the literature, and if there are any factors that contribute to increased rates of acceptance of senior LGBs in SLCs. Participants in this study answered questions about their demographics, perceptions of diversity acceptance, attitudes towards senior sexuality, and gay affirmative practice beliefs. The results of the research were inconclusive however. While the main goal of finding more accepting SLCs was accomplished, there was nearly no significance to the predictive measures of senior LGB acceptance in SLCs. It is suggested that further research is conducted on this subject matter to better understand the scope of the issues.
Degree
M.S.
Advisors
Edwards, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Mental health|Gerontology|GLBT Studies
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