Starting next year, California’s LGBT seniors will be protected from discrimination in long-term care facilities., thanks to a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Photo: iStock/EyeJoy.
SACRAMENTO — Starting next year, California’s LGBT seniors will be protected from discrimination in long-term care facilities.
SB 219, “LGBT Senior Long-Term Care Bill of Rights,” was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday. The law will go into effect Jan. 1, 2018.
RELATED: California bill would outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ seniors in long-term care facilities
Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) authored the bill.
“Our LGBT seniors built the modern LGBT community and led the fight for so many of the rights our community takes for granted today,” Wiener said in a statement. “It is our duty to make sure they can age with the dignity and respect they deserve.”
Once implemented, the law will provide various protections for LGBT seniors:
- Require facility staff to use the resident’s preferred pronoun and name
- Prevent facilities from denying admission to a long-term care facility based on anti-LGBT attitudes of other residents
- Prevent facilities from transferring a resident within a facility or to another facility based on anti-LGBT attitudes of other residents
- Prevent facilities from evicting or involuntarily discharging a resident on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, or HIV status
- Require each facility to post a specified notice regarding discrimination alongside its current nondiscrimination policy in all places and on all materials where the nondiscrimination policy is posted.
