...Jane Gross' heartbreaking look at the social denigration and isolation elderly gay men and women are facing at assisted living facilities around the country. As this generation of gays and lesbians enter their twilight years, many have no one to turn to for friendship and company but those within the confines of the nursing home (many already having been shunned by family). At an age when their minds are deteriorating to the point that they really don't know who they are anymore, to be insulted and isolated by the only people they thought they could depend on is the ultimate insult.
As Dr. Melinda Lantz, chief of geriatric psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York says:
There is something [very wrong] about having to hide this part of your identity at a time when your entire identity is threatened. That’s a faster pathway to depression, failure to thrive and even premature death.
