75 percent of LGBT seniors live alone and are four times less likely to have children

The Washington Blade , a leading gay news resource, quotes a study of Metlife reporting these percentages in the title. The article starts:

When you get old there are some phone calls and conversations you just don’t want to have.  Chief among them: “We are sorry but the only alternative for you is a nursing home.”

If we don’t plan, this can indeed be the only alternative for us. Why? First, look at the numbers. The MetLlife “Out and Aging Study” points out that 75 percent of heterosexual seniors live with at least one other person, generally a spouse or an adult child and about 80 percent of long-term care services are provided by unpaid caregivers, usually adult children. In some circles this is called the “sandwich generation,” adults taking care of parents as they work to get their kids through college and become grandparents themselves.

The same study found that 75 percent of LGBT seniors live alone and are four times less likely to have children. Most of us are in the “open sandwich generation,” adult children taking care of their frail parents and most of us with no children to take care of us. We are certainly busy though, 53 percent of LGBT adults are providing care for their relatives.

 

For more: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/06/09/who-will-take-care-of-us-as-we-age/