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Advocacy & Policy

SAGE provides a unique advocacy voice that ensures public policy on aging reflects the needs of the LGBT community. Because of its decades-long experience working with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) older adults, SAGE is able to partner with a broad array of advocacy organizations and works to improve aging policy on multiple fronts. Here are some examples:

NATIONAL

SAGE works on federal issues affecting LGBT older adults, developing policy recommendations and encouraging advocacy that will improve the health and quality of life for older LGBT people. To this end, SAGE conducts advocacy in Washington, D.C. and actively participates in national discussions affecting LGBT older adults. SAGE's federal priorities are:
  • Include LGBT people as a "vulnerable senior constituency and identity" and those with "greatest social need" as states and area agencies on aging develop their planning and social service delivery systems, as mandated by the Older Americans Act.
  • Identify federal funding opportunities that can be targeted to programs that specifically serve LGBT older people.
  • Include sexual orientation and gender identity categories as a designated and mandated component of federally funded aging research and data collection.
  • Allow for Medicaid exemptions to apply to same-sex partners.
  • Expand social security to include LGBT same sex partners in accessing survivor benefits and spousal enhancement benefits

For a copy of SAGE's federal priorities, click HERE

SAGE has developed white papers and recommendations in each of these key areas. For a copy of the white paper, please click HERE.

In addition, SAGE has developed a policy paper on HIV and LGBT Aging that addresses key prevention, education, treatment, and accessibility issues. The paper was produced with the input of members of the National LGBT Aging Roundtable (including the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, Gay Men's Health Crisis, GRIOT Circle, the National Association on HIV Over Fifty, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, SAGE of Metro St. Louis and the Transgender Aging Network), and with support from our colleagues at AIDS Action and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. To read the white paper, please click here.

Additional key issues affecting LGBT older adults where SAGE is participating in national advocacy include:

  • Recommend the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services revise its national coverage determination to ensure medically-necessary treatments related to gender transition and to remove barriers to health care related to an individual's pre-transition gender.
  • Amend the Fair Housing Act and other housing laws to include explicit non-discrimination policies that protect LGBT people

SAGE is a member of the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (www.lcao.org), and works with national minority aging organizations (now identified as "emerging majority") on shared issues of concern.

SAGE is the facilitator of the National LGBT Aging Roundtable, which identifies national policy areas that could improve the quality of life for LGBT older adults. In addition, SAGE serves on the Policy Committee of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and as a member of the Task Force's New Beginnings Initiative, (www.thetaskforce.org).

SAGE was a lead contributor to the Task Force's Outing Age 2010 public policy report, available at www.thetaskforce.org. SAGE is also a member of the National LGBT Health Coalition (www.lgbthealth.net). SAGE also works closely with the Equality Federation (http://www.equalityfederation.org), the national alliance of state LGBT advocacy organizations, and with CenterLink (www.lgbtcenters.org), the National Association of LGBT Community Centers.

STATE

SAGE has provided services and programs in New York City for over thirty years, making it one of the oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community organizations in New York State. SAGE is an active member of the New York State LGBT Health & Human Services Network (facilitated by the Empire State Pride Agenda, (www.pridagenda.org), and helped to create its Aging Issues Committee.

SAGE worked in partnership with other advocacy organizations to convince New York State's Office for the Aging to issue special guidance to all local offices of aging in the state to ensure that they include LGBT issues in their training materials and include LGBT representatives on their local advisory committees. As a result of that work, SAGE constituents and staff members actively participate in statewide aging and LGBT networks to advocate on behalf of LGBT older adults, and serve on statewide advisory commissions established by the New York State Office for Aging. SAGE and its state affiliates regularly present at the New York State "Aging Concerns Unite Us" Conference, provide cultural competency trainings and offer input into the state's four-year aging plan.

LOCAL

SAGE is frequently called upon by elected officials and the City of New York Department for the Aging to offer recommendations relevant to improving the lives of LGBT older adults. For example: One of the most innovative new concepts in public policy for seniors is "naturally occurring retirement communities" (NORCs), which allow seniors to grow older in their own communities by bringing supportive services to buildings or neighborhoods where they live. SAGE convinced New York City to become the first in the country to grant NORC funding to a support program for LGBT seniors. SAGE's program for LGBT seniors in Harlem is recognized as a "NORC of affinity" rather than geography. Click here to read the Harlem NORC article in SAGE Matters.

SAGE is an active member of the Council of Senior Centers and Services, and has representation on city interagency councils on aging. SAGE partners with the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (www.acria.org) to provide community-based trainings on HIV/AIDS in older adults throughout New York City, and SAGE serves on the HIV Coordinating Council of New York City and the New York Association of HIV Over Fifty. SAGE works closely with the City of New York Department for the Aging to provide culturally competent trainings on sexual orientation and gender identity to senior-serving agencies.

SAGE could not do this local advocacy work without the involvement of dedicated SAGE activists. The SAGE Advocates represent LGBT aging issues on local aging advisory councils and works together to identify appropriate advocacy actions. Regular advocacy training is offered to LGBT constituents interested in getting involved.

In 2010, SAGE received funding to expand this constituent advocacy opportunity to five SAGE affiliates, to further engage older LGBT people in their communities on issues affecting older adults and the LGBT community.