Following statements by Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney continues to answer questions about President Barack Obama's views on gay marriage.
Gay activists, allies gather in Miami for first White House LGBT Conference on Aging
BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
For years, Bruce Williams managed a Texas retirement community. Now 65, he himself is retired, living in Miami Beach and chairman of the Pride Center of South Florida’s senior advisory council in Wilton Manors.
Williams, a board member of SAGE South Florida (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders), advises other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people how to cope with getting older. “They are ill-prepared for their personal aging situations,” he said. “There’s been very little education available to individuals as to the needs that will arise and the resources that are available or not available to meet those needs.”
On Monday, he and about 160 other gay activists from throughout Florida participated in the first White House LGBT Conference on Aging, held at the University of Miami’s Clinical Research Building in Miami.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, opened the one-day conference.
“It’s hugely important to my constituency,” said Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and one of Congress’ most outspoken gay allies. “I represent one of the largest gay populations in the country. ... We have had for many years a generation of the LGBT community that has been able to live openly. Now, we have unique and specific issues for LGBT seniors that we’re aware of. They always existed, it’s just that they existed in the shadows and there were no services and no attempts to help them.
“It’s important to have the White House conference on aging because now we can specifically identify and assist when there are unique issues, like there are unique issues with every type of senior community,” she said.
National speakers included Kathy Greenlee, an out lesbian administrator at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department; and Rafael Bostic, a gay assistant secretary for policy development and research of the Housing & Urban Development Department.
“These LGBT elder issues are real and they are going to get bigger as we go on,” Bostic said. “Just the timing of when people are out and when people are ready to talk about it. We’ve got a wave of elders coming in our community and we need to be ready for them.”
Jim Crochet, state ombudsman for the Florida Department of Elder Affairs’ Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, said his office is seeking LGBT people who can be trained to assist elderly gays and lesbians.
This marks “the first time that the LGBT issue has ever been raised” by Elder Affairs, Crochet said.
There are an estimated two million LGBT American seniors (about 4 percent of the national population ages 65 and up), according to Michael Adams, executive director of SAGE USA in New York.
“LGBT adults are four times less likely to have children, twice as likely in their old age to be single and live alone,” Adams said. “They’re more likely to be disconnected from their family of origin. It makes this population particularly vulnerable.”
In 1988, Congress protected poor, elderly married couples from Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment, ensuring that if one spouse enters a nursing home, the other wouldn’t lose his or her home and savings. Gay and lesbian couples, regardless of whether they are married in some states, are not protected, Adams said.
Also at risk are transgender seniors, said Barbara Ann Coombs, 77, of Miami Lakes.
“While I don’t need any long-term care right now, there may be a day when that will come and I want to be myself, not somebody else,” Coombs said. “I want to have that guarantee given to me by the federal government. I served the country for 27 years in the military so I am entitled, I think.”
Married to a wife with grown children, Coombs came out as a trans woman about 25 years ago.
She worries what could happen at a hospital or nursing home where patients usually share rooms with people of the same gender.
“It could get messy,” Coombs said. “Then you’ve got a problem. A big problem.”
Obama's vague gay marriage stance under scrutiny after comments by Biden, Duncan
BY JULIE PACE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's vague stance on gay marriage is facing fresh scrutiny. A prominent Cabinet official has broken ranks with the White House, stating his unequivocal support for same-sex marriage.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan's comments came one day after Vice President Joe Biden suggested he supported gay marriage, too.
Obama aides insisted the statements were not part of a coordinated effort to lay groundwork for a shift in the president's position. Obama has stopped short of backing gay marriage, saying his views are "evolving."
The White House kept to that position Monday. But with Biden and Duncan's comments reinvigorating the debate, the pressure on Obama to clarify his views ahead of the November election seems certain to increase.
TMZ: John Travolta sued by masseur who claims actor touched his penis
TMZ reports that John Travolta is being sued by a masseur, "who claims the actor tried to have sex with him during a session."
The masseur, who told Travolta that he doesn't have sex with clients, is seeking $2 million plus punitive damages.
He clams Travolta got naked, was semi-erect and touched the masseur's penis and scrotum.
Obama cabinet member, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, backs gay marriage (with video)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet, says he supports gay marriage.
Duncan's position puts him in possible conflict with Obama, who has not publically backed same-sex marriage. Obama says his position on the matter is evolving.
In an interview Monday on MSNBC, Duncan was asked if he believes same-sex couples should be able to legally marry. He responded: "Yes, I do."
Duncan's revelation follows Vice President Joe Biden's assertion this weekend that he is "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex married couples getting the same rights at heterosexual married couples. Gay rights advocates interpreted Biden's words as an endorsement of gay marriage, while the White House insisted the vice president had not broken ranks with the president.
