Lukcia Sullivan opened up her life to the general public over the previous 12 months because the Bangor Each day Information adopted the 69-year-old from Hampden by a collection of surgical procedures to align her physique along with her gender id.
Lukcia, who was assigned male at delivery, is amongst about 1,000 transgender adults in Maine who’re 65 or older, in response to a inhabitants examine the Williams Institute on the College of California-Los Angeles printed in June.
Whereas these adults are ageing in a state with a number of the strongest anti-discrimination protections within the U.S., they nonetheless face challenges like social isolation and obstacles to providers like well being care, and so they report larger charges unemployment, poverty and meals insecurity than their cisgender friends.
And regardless of the authorized protections in place, they nonetheless encounter discrimination of their every day lives and see legislative makes an attempt in Augusta to roll again their rights.
Maine’s status as a state with robust anti-discrimination protections comes from its comparatively early adoption of a far-reaching anti-discrimination legislation and same-sex marriage.
It turned the sixteenth state in 2005 to go protections that prevented discrimination towards LGBTQ individuals in employment, housing and training.
In 2012, it turned the primary state to permit same-sex marriage through in style referendum.
And two years later, the Maine Supreme Judicial Courtroom affirmed transgender college students’ proper to make use of college bogs that corresponded with their gender id.
EqualityMaine has advocated for profitable laws that protected LGBTQ individuals towards discrimination in public lodging and made it simpler for nonbinary and transgender Mainers to acquire documentation that displays their gender id, in response to govt director Gia Drew.
However the advocacy group thinks its work is way from accomplished.
Now, it’s pushing for added, smaller items of laws, often called “clear up payments,” that standardize how anti-discrimination legal guidelines are utilized throughout all public businesses, Drew stated.
One space the group is specializing in is well being care, as EqualityMaine offers trainings for docs’ workplaces and insurance coverage corporations in find out how to navigate well being care with their transgender sufferers.
Maine has made some strides in enhancing care, like a 2019 rule from the state Division of Well being and Human Companies that established protection for transgender individuals underneath MaineCare, together with for providers wanted to deal with gender dysphoria.
However the group nonetheless hears from transgender individuals who report receiving pushback from their docs when making an attempt to entry medical care, Drew stated.
“There’s nonetheless plenty of discrimination towards LGBTQ individuals, particularly transgender people, making an attempt to get care that most individuals take with no consideration,” she stated. “We nonetheless hear from individuals saying they’ve been denied care as a result of the physician didn’t need to deal with a transgender individual, or ‘We don’t try this right here in our workplace.’”
One other space EqualityMaine is specializing in is training. The Maine Human Rights Act covers faculties, however there isn’t a one uniform coverage for supporting LGBTQ college students, Drew stated.
“One college might have a extremely supportive LGBT coverage, and the subsequent city has actually, little or no,” she stated.
Ageing comes with its personal host of challenges, like loneliness, stated Nem Knight, this system coordinator for SAGE Maine, which offers providers like assist teams and advocacy for aged LGBTQ Mainers.
Older LGBTQ persons are much less more likely to have kids, spouses or different kinfolk to behave as caregivers, in order that they lean on their communities as they age, a phenomenon known as “horizontal caregiving,” Knight stated.
“So that you, as a 70-year-old, are additionally caring to your 76-year-old neighbor,” she stated.
LGBTQ elders are few and much between in a rural state like Maine, Knight stated.
“Loneliness is actual, for older adults, no matter their sexual orientation or id,” she stated. “After which it’s type of compounded if you end up a part of a marginalized neighborhood.”
Fears about dealing with discrimination think about as aged LGBTQ individuals think about getting into long-term care houses, like assisted dwelling services, Knight stated.
Her shoppers worry being the one LGBTQ individuals there or dealing with discrimination from workers or different live-in sufferers.
“Individuals who fought actually exhausting their complete lives to reside out and open, suddenly, come into these communities and [are] surrounded by their [straight] friends,” she stated. “There’s nothing extra scary than the judgment of your peer group. Regardless of how outdated you might be, that’s at all times intimidating.”
In June, Grownup Household Care Properties of Maine agreed to undertake a non-discrimination coverage as a part of its settlement of the case of Marie King, a 79-year-old transgender girl whom the corporate turned away after she was referred to its Jonesport facility, in response to the Maine Human Rights Fee. King’s authorized crew stated her grievance was the primary one within the U.S. filed towards a long-term care facility by an older, transgender grownup.
Lukcia’s transition has dovetailed with an rising tradition warfare that has seen greater than 300 payments attacking transgender rights proposed in state homes across the nation. Whereas Maine legislators have shortly quashed makes an attempt to copy them, the state Republican social gathering adopted a platform at its conference in April that might ban dialogue of LGBTQ id in school rooms.
In Augusta, legislators launched payments final 12 months that would have restricted transgender ladies’s entry to ladies’s shelters, and disallowed transgender women from enjoying on sports activities groups with their cisgender friends. Each did not go out of committee.
“The assaults on LGBTQ individuals, particularly transgender children and ladies, has undoubtedly been ramped up and amped up as a nationwide technique,” Drew stated.
Acceptance in communities throughout the state can be uneven, Drew stated.
“Some communities are actually supportive and so they have a tradition of acceptance,” Drew stated. “And then you definitely go 5 miles to a different city [and] it looks as if an entire totally different planet.”
