Adding a Piece to the Puzzle: LGBT Aging Community Surveys

In an ideal world, accurate data inform advocacy, policy, program and service development, further research, and ultimately promote successful aging opportunities for all. Sadly, this utopia does not apply to LGBT elders. Sexual orientation and-or gender identity do not appear as categories in the Census, nor in any federal data, so we have very little national knowledge about LGBT older persons, even basic demographic information—information that is a prerequisite for community investments by policymakers and service providers.