Lesbian Couple Denied Housing by Senior Living Community Files Suit

In 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Obergefell v. Hodges case that marriage equality was the law of the land, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community celebrated, but only briefly. Marriage is only one step in a lifelong partnership between two people, and many within the LGBTQ community have found that even though they are married, they are not treated the same as a heterosexual couple would be. The discrimination becomes more pronounced as LGBTQ people age, and often LGBTQ seniors have difficulty accessing the same assistance and opportunities, like senior living accommodations, available to heterosexual seniors. In a recent instance, a lesbian couple from St. Louis, Missouri applied to a senior living community in 2016 and found out shortly thereafter that their admission was denied because the community had a “long-standing policy” that precluded a lesbian couple from cohabitating.