LGBT Senior Services in Atlanta
The locals don’t call it “Hotlanta” for nothing. The Atlanta metro area is home to more than a dozen LGBT-friendly neighborhoods, an array of gay clubs and bars to suit every interest, and the biggest annual pride event in the Southeastern U.S. Whether you’re a night owl, a foodie, or a civic-minded activist (or all three), there are plenty of ways to make yourself at home and get involved in the city named “America’s Gayest” in 2010 by The Advocate.
Major LGBT Events in Atlanta
This October marks the 44th annual Atlanta Pride Festival, a free two-day celebration of LGBTQ culture in Piedmont Park, timed to coincide with National Coming Out Day. Festivalgoers enjoy live entertainment, a huge marketplace, and the Atlanta Pride Parade. Other events held over Pride Weekend include the Pride Car and Motorcycle Show and a kickoff party for 4,000 ticketholders at the Georgia Aquarium.
Other major LGBT yearly happenings are Atlanta’s Labor Day weekend Black Gay Pride Celebration–the largest of its kind in the world–and the fall Southern Comfort transgender conference, now in its 23rd year.
Welcoming neighborhoods
With a baker’s dozen of gay-friendly neighborhoods, you can set up a house just about anywhere in the city and find yourself right at home. Midtown is thought of as the epicenter of Atlanta’s LGBT life, filled with clubs, galleries, theaters, and the flashy Midtown Mile shopping and dining district. From there, it’s easy to branch out and explore the city.
North of Midtown, the city’s wealthiest enclave, Buckhead, is home to Woofs, the city’s popular gay sports bar, plus upscale shopping at Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza, and elegant Southern homes. (Sir Elton John and his husband have a home in the neighborhood.) The gated Calvin Court senior independent living community is ideally located in Buckhead; residents have easy access to shopping, nightlife, parks, and more. Another nearby community for an upscale independent living is the Renaissance on Peachtree, which features a full array of onsite services, meals, and fitness options.
East of Midtown, Decatur has earned its reputation as a haven for lesbian culture and a place where you can always find a festival—-beer, books, and beaches complete with truck-in sand are among the reasons to come out and party. Senior living options in the Decatur area include Clairmont Crest Apartments, a pet-friendly, smoke-free complex for seniors that offers meals, free transportation, fun activities onsite and in the city, and onsite homecare.
Making friends, making a difference
The Atlanta gay community stays active year-round, with events ranging from the LGBT celebration of MLK weekend in January to the spring Human Rights Campaign fundraiser. Summer means it’s time for the Southeast’s biggest drag event, the East Point Possums Show, and fall brings Pride Weekend and the Out on Film Festival. The year wraps up with the annual December Toy Party to provide gifts to Atlanta-area children who would otherwise go without.
Learn more about Atlanta Senior Living here:
Atlanta Low-Income Senior Housing
Pet-Friendly Senior Living in Atlanta
Religious Retirement Communities in Atlanta
Best of Atlanta Senior Living 2016
How Much Does Atlanta Assisted Living Cost?
How Much Do Atlanta Nursing Homes Cost?
Luxury Senior Living in Atlanta
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Casey Kelly-Barton
Casey Kelly-Barton is an Austin-based freelance writer whose childhood was made awesome by her grandmothers, great-grandmother, great-aunts and -uncles, and their friends.
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September 13, 2015
The LGBT Friendly Community Senior Center
Phone: 215-370-3000
Email: lgbt.friendly@aol.comSeptember 13, 2015
Address of the Recipient
To whom it may concern,
The LGBT Friendly Community Senior Center is looking for donations, fiscal sponsor and locations to set up facility in these cities Philadelphia Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Baltimore Maryland. The centers visionary founded Frances Poulson, who hopes to serve the vastly growing LGBT baby booming elderly population throughout the country. The LGBT Friendly Community Senior Centers’ mission is to provide a safe and nurturing environment to support the social, physical, and health needs of the LGBT retired baby booming population. The purpose for the centers is to strengthen families of choice by fighting for rights, offering support as LGBT age-in-place while staying social connected to their communities. I hope to serve the LGBT communities throughout many cities and states at once. The Centers’ would offer daily programs and activities throughout the year. Programs such as: Physical Exercise program with subgroups of differing physical abilities. Brain Exercise: Program of games for varied interests and abilities encompassing computer games, trivia, puzzles to chess and more. Lectures: A series of lectures and presentations by experts in longevity, laws that effect LGBT seniors, aging, as well as entertainment ranging from films and staged performances by the community theater and more. Meals: Serving breakfast, lunch and a pm snack. Outings: Travel to historical sites locally and throughout the country. The LGBT elderly should be able to enjoy the same advantages in our communities as non-LGBT seniors’ worldwide.
While all seniors are targets for many different things such as crimes and abuse. More, seniors live at or below the poverty level, do not receive a nutritious meal, have little to no form of family structure and are not connected to their communities. In fact, the number of seniors that are living in these conditions are going to double once the baby boomers retire. These same conditions will triple for LGBT seniors. “This information was shared with the public through Improving the Lives of LGBT Older Adults. “Social Security.•• Despite paying into Social Security in the same manner as their heterosexual peers, LGBT elders are not equally eligible for Social Security benefits. The biggest difference in treatment: committed same-sex couples are denied the substantial spousal and survivor benefits provided to married couples.
Medicaid and Long-Term Care.•• For married heterosexual couples, Medicaid has exemptions to avoid requiring a healthy partner to live in poverty to qualify a spouse for long-term care. Unfortunately, these spousal impoverishment protections do not apply to same-sex couples and families of choice.”
“Health care environments often are inhospitable to LGBT elders. Many professional caregivers are not accepting of, or trained to work with, LGBT elders. These providers may be hostile, discriminatory, or simply unaware that LGBT elders exist.
“Inheritance Laws. ••In most cases, LGBT elders must put in place a series of specific and often expensive legal arrangements to try to ensure that financial decision making and inheritance will pass to a partner or family-of-choice member.”
“Veterans’ Benefits. ••The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides a variety of benefits to veterans’ heterosexual spouses, including pensions paid to the spouse of a service member killed in combat, medical care, and home loan guarantees. These benefits are not available to a same-sex partner.” In many of the neighborhoods across the USA, LGBT elderly will and have find themselves isolated and without safe opportunities to exercise, to socialize, or to use their mental capacities beyond watching television.
Unfortunately, my vision has not become a reality as of yet. I am writing for monetary and tangible donations. Please partner with me to make our existing senior centers LGBT friendly and let’s open our own LGBT Friendly Community Senior Center. For information on how your organization can help please e-mail us at lgbt.friendly@aol.com -
I want to volunteer for the LGBT seniors here in Atlanta, where can I do that?
