ＬＧＢＴＱ向け高齢者施設、米ヒューストンに登場　米最大

【ヒューストンＡＦＰ＝時事】自分らしく生きようとするトランスジェンダーのディナ・ジェイコブスさんにとって、人生は困難の連続だった。だが、ようやく長かったトンネルの出口に光が見えてきた。（写真は米テキサス州ヒューストンのＬＧＢＴＱ向け高齢者施設「ロー・ハリントンセンター」内の自室で話すドラァグクイーンのディナ・ジェイコブスさん）
　「どんなことだろうと最終的にはどうにかなる。５００万回の『ノー』と１回の『イエス』。その１回がこれ。これが私のイエスです」。ドラァグパフォーマーとして５７年間ステージに立ってきたジェイコブスさんは、控え目なワンベッドルームに記者らを案内し、そう話した。
　６月下旬に正式オープンした集合住宅「ロー・ハリントン高齢者生活センター」は、寝室１部屋もしくは２部屋の住戸１１２戸と、図書室やドッグパークなどの共用施設を備えるＬＧＢＴＱ（性的少数者）向けの高齢者施設だ。
　高齢で体が弱くなった人々が地域で暮らし続けるために住居を提供することと、より広範なＬＧＢＴＱコミュニティーを温かく受け入れていくことを目的に設置されたこの施設に、ハワイ出身のジェイコブスさんも部屋を借りることになった。月々の家賃は５００ドル（約５万５０００円）を超えない。
　開所式に出席したヒューストンのアニース・パーカー前市長は、「多くの性的少数者は介護を担う子どもがいない。またＬＧＢＴＱであることを公にして経済的に困窮したり、職を失ったりしている場合もある」と指摘する。
　パーカー氏は、８年前にロサンゼルスにある同様の施設を訪れ、ヒューストンにも社会的弱者を温かく迎え入れる集合住宅が必要だと考えるようになったという。パーカー氏自身、市長になる前から性的少数者であることを公言していた。当時、性的少数者であることを公にする市長は、米主要都市ではほぼ皆無だった。

■前向きな環境
　ロー・ハリントン高齢者生活センターは、ＬＧＢＴＱの高齢者の受け入れに特化した施設としては全米最大を誇る。ヒューストン出身の権利活動家、チャールズ・ローとジーン・ハリントンの名前を取って命名された。施設中央のタワーは、ＬＧＢＴＱを象徴する虹色で彩られている。
　このプロジェクトを主導したのは、１９７８年創設の性的少数者支援組織、モントローズ・センターで、開設資金として２６５０万ドル（約３０億円）を集めた。
　入居者はＬＧＢＴＱコミュニティーを支援する「レガシー・コミュニティー・ヘルス・サービシズ」の医療クリニックも利用できる。
　同団体によると、高齢の性的少数者は過去に差別的に扱われた体験から病院に行かないことも多いという。

■「暴力は日常茶飯事」
　ジェイコブスさんは、「ハワイにいた６０年代当時、暴力を受けることは日常茶飯事だった。私たちが私たちであるという、それだけの理由で」と振り返る。
　また、尊厳を持って人生を満喫できなかったＬＧＢＴＱの活動家たちのことを思わずにはいられないと話し、ロー・ハリントン・センターのような温かい場所がもっと早くからつくられるべきだったと続けた。
　その日の夜、ジェイコブスさんはグラマラスなドレス姿で、ヒューストンのおしゃれな性的少数者たちを前に歌を披露した。曲は米歌手ダイアナ・ロスが１９７８年のミュージカル「Ｔｈｅ　Ｗｉｚ」で歌って有名になった「ホーム」だった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/07/26-12:07）

Life has thrown a lot of roadblocks at Dina Jacobs, a transgender woman, for trying to live authentically. But now, she can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Look, everything comes through eventually. Five million no's and one yes, and this is it. This is my yes! says Jacobs, who spent her 57-year career on stage as a drag performer.
Jacobs, a Hawaiian native, is showing a reporter the modest one-bedroom apartment she is now able to rent for less than $500 a month in the first residence in the southern United States exclusively for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) people.
Formally inaugurated on Thursday, the Law Harrington center offers 112 one- and two-bedroom apartments, as well as common spaces including a library and a dog park.
Located on the edge of Houston's fast-gentrifying Third Ward, it aims both to provide refuge to allow an aging and vulnerable population to remain in their own neighborhood, and to extend a positive welcome to the broader LGBTQ community.
A lot of them don't have kids who can provide generational support. There're also issues of resources, because those who are publicly out may have economic disadvantages, lost jobs, said Annise Parker, a former Houston mayor who attended the inauguration.
It was Parker -- one of the first openly gay mayors of a major US city -- who eight years ago returned from a visit to a similar center in Los Angeles with the idea of creating such a welcoming residence in Houston.
The common room, where Parker cut the inaugural ribbon, now bears her name.
It's not actually named because of the work I did as mayor, she said with a laugh. It's because my wife Kathy and I made a substantial donation!
- A positive environment -
Designed by a neighborhood architect, the residence -- with its rainbow-colored central tower -- is the largest in the United States specifically welcoming LGBTQ seniors.
It bears the names of Charles Law and Gene Harrington, two gay rights activists from Houston. Both died of AIDS, respectively in 1993 and 2002.
The Montrose Center, which has supported LGBTQ causes since 1978, spearheaded the project, raising the $26.5 million needed.
When I first came out as gay, in Texas, my family had a really hard time with it, said Kennedy Loftin, Montrose's chief development officer.
I did not have any place to sleep. That brief housing insecurity made me realize how important it is to take care of our seniors.
It's one of the only places where same-sex senior couples, or transgender seniors and other members of the LGBTQ community, can live safe and affirmed in older ages, he said.
Residents will also have access to a clinic run by Legacy Community Health Services, an LGBTQ-affirming entity, according to Legacy director Katy Caldwell.
That access is vitally important, she said.
LGBT seniors are specifically at risk for not going to the doctor because they've been treated badly in the past, discriminated against, afraid to talk about who they love and to bring the people that they love with them to see the provider.
The clinic is open to all neighborhood residents.
- 'Beat up all the time' -
Jacobs, who just survives on her modest Social Security payments, would rather not dwell on her difficult medical history.
After proudly showing off a new closet big enough to hold all her flamboyant show gowns, she grows quiet when describing her rough road to the present, whether dealing with an unscrupulous manager in Texas or widespread hostility in her early days in Honolulu.
Back in Hawaii we used to be beat up all the time, back in the '60s, just for being us, you know, she said.
Jacobs can't help but think about the LGBTQ activists who were unable to live out their lives in dignity. A welcoming residence like Law Harrington should have been founded long ago, she said.
There's a lot of people that died lonely in the streets, and it's just not right. When they were fighting for everybody's rights, nobody was there for them. And now that we got all the benefits of what they did, they're not here to appreciate this.
As evening begins, though, Dina is again doing what she loves best. Dressed in a glamorous, sequin-covered gown with a low neckline, she sings for an audience of Houston's gay elite.
The song she has chosen was made famous by diva Diana Ross in the 1978 musical The Wiz.
Its simple title: Home.