About

About.

The Best4OlderLGBTI project intends to fight against discrimination based on age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics of older people, and to promote the rights of older (LGBTI) people, through raising awareness of different target groups contributing for a more equal and inclusive society.

The aim of the project is to develop a raising awareness campaign in six EU Member States, contributing for the decrease of inequalities and discrimination in attendance of public services and health and social care, as well as in encouraging the report of cases of discrimination.

Ageism and Discrimination.

Populations around the world are rapidly ageing and society must reorganize itself to receive all citizens in an inclusive and equality environment. We hope for an inclusive society, where everyone could be happy and live their lives with dignity and quality, regardless of their age, disabilities, sex, gender, race, cultural or social status.
“Ageism” refers to a generalized negative opinion, attitudes and behaviors to an individual based only on their age (Nelson, 2002). There are many findings showing that older people are special targets of ageism, resulting from a negative evaluation and different treatment across several fields in society and across different age groups (Marques, 2011).
On the other hand, older people experience more than one type of discrimination, for example, discrimination resulting from their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. Sexuality is a basic human need, which includes affection and belonging, natural to people's lives, regardless their age, sexual orientation or gender identity (Pires, 2011).

In addition to ageism, older LGBTI’s face another form of discrimination related with homophobia and transphobia, for instance.
Nowadays we talk freely about this issue, but the LGBTI older adults lived their lives at a time where their issues around sexuality and gender were hidden and they concealed their identity, experiencing social exclusion and invisibility in the society (AGE & ILGA Europe, 2012, FRA, 2014).
In 2015, the Eurobarometer Survey on Discrimination showed that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was the second most widespread form of discrimination in the EU (58%), followed by gender identity (56%). Discrimination by age was classified by 42% of the participants.
Since 2012, this proportion increased, especially on the grounds of sexual orientation (+12) and gender identity (+11). Additionally, 47% of respondents say they wouldn’t know what are their rights if they would be a victim of discrimination or harassment (EC Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, 2015).

News

Promoting and supporting the sexual rights of older adults

"There is a tendency to stereotype older adults as sexless: that they’re not interested in sex, do not catch sexual diseases, and are not at risk of sexual assault. Sharron Hinchliff elaborates on what would be the benefits of a sexual rights approach.
Sexual rights come to the fore when we consider the life histories of today’s generation of older adults. Many grew-up during a time when gender roles were rigid, so diverse sexual and gender identities were not understood or accepted."

After 70 years of human rights, what’s next?

"By inviting specific groups -women, migrants, people of colour, LGBTI, people with disabilities, etc. – to reflect on how ageism might affect them in older age, we went beyond the usual suspects. We deepened our understanding of the various realities faced by these groups as they age. Each of these realities are specific to a group, resulting from the intersection of ageism with one or several other discriminations."

Let Older LGBTI people to shine

"What is Silver Rainbow?
Started on October 1st 2015, by ILGA-EUROPE, ‘Silver Rainbow’ is a social media campaign to highlight life experiences of older LGBTI people. #SilverRainbow

We're Here for You.

If you want to:

contribute to Best4OlderLGBTI project;
know more about what are we doing;
participate as Best4OlderLGBTI associated partner;

...please send us a message.