'People forget we exist': Why older LGBTQ+ people fear losing identity — SkimNews
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- Centre for Ageing Better report finds older LGBTQ+ people experience poorer health, more limited finances, and greater social isolation than the wider older population, warning they could be "forced back into the closet" when accessing care and may even delay seeking help due to homophobia concerns.
- Kindred House, a first-of-its-kind LGBTQ+ social housing scheme for over-55s, is set to open in Manchester next year with 80 self-contained apartments as a joint project with the local council, with all staff receiving specialist LGBTQ+ inclusion training.
- Tonic, the UK's first LGBTQ+ retirement community, opened in London in 2021 with 19 apartments and is set to be featured in a Netflix documentary about resident Chek Min-Ong, 77, whose partner Tim died five months after moving in.
- The number of UK over-50s identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual rose roughly a third between 2019 and 2024 — from about 340,000 to almost 460,000 — while the heterosexual over-50s population grew only 4% over the same period.
- More than half of gay and bisexual men aged 65 and above live alone, compared with less than a quarter of heterosexual men, and only half of gay and bisexual men aged 50+ are confident they would have someone to help them if needed — 14 percentage points lower than heterosexual men.
- Adam Porter of the LGBT Foundation says he regularly meets older LGBTQ+ people who hide wedding photos or take down trans flags when carers visit, and has been "horrified" by stories of carers offering to "pray for them" regarding their sexuality.
Why it matters: The older LGBTQ+ population in the UK is expanding fast — over-50s identifying as LGB jumped roughly 33% between 2019 and 2024 — yet specialist housing like Kindred House and Tonic remain vanishingly rare, with similar projects more common in Spain, Sweden, Germany, the US, and Canada. Without scaling these models and training mainstream carers, more than half of gay and bisexual men over 65 — already living alone at double the rate of heterosexual peers — risk being forced back into the closet when they most need support.
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