Photo taken at Silent No More: Shining a Light on Aging with HIV
CHICAGO — Today, on National Honor Our LGBTQ+ Elders Day, Governor JB Pritzker signed SB3490: Disrupting Disparities for LGBTQ+ Older Adults and Older Adults Living With HIV. The new law creates the Illinois Commission on LGBTQ+ Aging; establishes an LGBTQ+ Older Adult Advocate within state government; and requires state-funded aging services providers to complete LGBTQ+ older adult awareness and competency training.
“These elder adults are trailblazers in the fight for LGBTQ rights, growing up in an a more hostile time where basic rights were regularly denied based on gender and sexuality,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This amendment to the Illinois Act on Aging honors that struggle by ensuring all people can age in dignity with equal access to essential care and social supports.”
SB3490 was supported by the Illinois Department on Aging, AARP of Illinois, Center on Halsted, Equality Illinois, Howard Brown Health, Pride Action Tank, SAGE, Golden Rainbows of Illinois South, Prairie Pride Coalition, Chicago Bar Association, and many more organizations.
Thank you to Governor Pritzker, State Senator Karina Villa (D-West Chicago), and State Representative Lakesia Collins (D-Chicago) for sponsoring and supporting this bill. Thank you to our advocates who spent months contacting their state officials and advocating for stronger resources for LGBTQ+ older adults. Together, we are working towards better futures for those in the LGBTQ+ community and ending the HIV epidemic in Illinois by 2030.
“On behalf of AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) and Pride Action Tank, I want to thank the Illinois General Assembly for passing SB3490 and the governor for signing this important legislation into law,” said Kim L. Hunt, Executive Director of Pride Action Tank. “This critical legislation helps ensure that LGBTQ older adults and older people living with HIV are seen, have a voice at that table and are treated with dignity and respect.”
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