Michael Kirby speaks out against elder abuse in the LGBTI community
Image: Image: Benedict Brook.
Former High Court judge Michael Kirby has spoken out about the problem of elder abuse for the LGBTI community.
The prominent LGBTI advocate spoke to ABC Radio National yesterday, saying that elder abuse can take many forms but is often psychological for older LGBTI people.
“It’s basically an abuse of the mind,” he said.
“It is sometimes an abuse that arises from low self-esteem and the fact that people who are LGBTIQ have gone through their lives doing a deal with society, that they would pretend to be straight so that they didn’t upset the majority and suffer from the criminal laws against them.”
Kirby said that while homophobia in Australian society has decreased greatly in his lifetime, problems remain for the ageing LGBTI community.
He noted that last year’s marriage equality postal survey led to a great deal of hurtful discourse affecting young and old people alike.
“38 per cent of people still voted against it,” he said.
“People say what a wonderful result that was—well, I don’t think it was all that wonderful.
“The process was a very flawed process, and it was a form of elder abuse and certainly LGBT abuse, that they were singled out for this special treatment.”
Kirby said marriage equality poses new challenges in aged care.
“In the facilities that look after older people, there’s now the problem of accommodating to the fact that some older LGBT people will be married,” he said.
He added that not all care facilities were against LGBTI people, saying that he had met an older gay couple who had been married in a Catholic home.
“Things are definitely improving, but there are some facilities that will not be friendly,” he said.
“We’ve still got a bit of a journey to make in these matters, and I think it’s very important for people to feel comfortable and safe an accepted in their environment.”
Kirby said he was concerned about the review of religious freedoms following the introduction of marriage equality, particularly because many aged care facilities are run by religious groups.
He added that while the law may protect LGBTI people from discrimination, individuals working in aged care may still be discriminatory in their behaviour.
The federal government this week announced that stopping elder abuse will be among its top priorities.
The 5th National Elder Abuse Conference in Sydney, where Kirby also spoke on the issue of abuse of older LGBTI people, closed yesterday.
The ‘goverment’ must act sooner than later. No matter what party is in, they keep exuding a stale fake rhetoric of concern, yet they *still* do nothing to address this problem.
The ‘Aged Care Commission’ is useless to report complaints to; and the bi-annual accreditation process needs to be overhauled to *only* by done at random times unannounced so that will keep guilty care facilities and companies on their toes to *always* provide value for the pensioner’s money – not only when accreditation-season is about to happen.
Until the ‘government’ finally pulls its finger out and takes elder abuse seriously *and* proactively, the problem will stay; no matter what sexuality one has.
Victimisers and victims, how to go beyond this dilemma…in australia and other places in the world…
Michael Kirby is a giant of a man!. Australia, take note.