Making sure that LGBT elders have healthy, secure, and rewarding lives requires reaching out to the mainstream aging community.  At the event, “Understanding and Meeting the Needs of LGBT Elders,” sponsored by Center for American Progress Action Fund in 2010, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin discussed the need to address lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender inequality and implement change to ensure that, “we will all be able to live out our final years surrounded by the people we love in exactly the way we choose.”

Percil Stanford, chief diversity officer at the American Association of Retired Persons, stated “as an organization, we’re certainly committed to social change” and we “cannot afford to segregate based on color, sexual orientation, gender identity” or anything else.

The event centered around research and recommendations detailed in a March 2010 report, “Improving the Lives of LGBT Older Adults.”  A transcript of the event and video are both available.