SAGE Issues Pledge to Stand with LGBT Elders in Face of Discrimination
The Trump administration is giving businesses and medical providers a license to discriminate: to deny services to LGBT individuals based on religious or moral beliefs. Freedom of religion is important to all of us; that’s why it’s protected by our Constitution. But that freedom doesn’t give anyone the right to harm others or to discriminate. In response, SAGE is enlisting the power of the LGBT community, their allies, and the people who care for them to take a stand.
- According to AARP, more than TWO THIRDS of LGBT adults have concerns that they will face neglect in long-term care. The same report details that OVER HALF believe they will be forced to hide or deny their identity.
- The Trump administration is already promoting the right of providers to deny care to the LGBT community via a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at the Department of Health & Human Services.
- In the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case, the Trump administration is arguing that any business that sells a product, or provides a service to the public, has a license to discriminate based on their religious or moral beliefs.
We refuse to back down. We refuse to let our elders go back in the closet. We must remind this administration that Care Can’t Wait.
As the Supreme Court deliberates whether publicly open businesses should have a license to discriminate, and LGBT people are being erased by government agencies, everyone—especially those who consider themselves allies—must stand with LGBT elders.