People over 50 are growing out of the environment they grew up in for LGBTQ+ people.
Now, a new University of Michigan poll looks at what that means for both those over 50 who are LGBTQ+ and those who aren’t.
It shows that 69% of non-LGBTQ+ people over the age of 50 have at least one personal connection with someone of any age who is LGBTQ+, which is short for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or other gender or sexual minority.
Among non-LGBTQ+ people over 50 who know an LGBTQ+ person, the majority (56%) say they count an LGBTQ+ person as a friend, while 50% say they have a relative who is LGBTQ+.
Additionally, 15% say they have a coworker, and 10% a neighbor, who is open about being LGBTQ+.
But the same poll shows that LGBTQ+ over-50s experience age-related challenges at different rates than non-LGBTQ+ over-50s.
In general, LGBTQ+ people over 50 are more likely to report fair or poor mental health, activity-limiting disabilities, isolation and lack of friendships than people over 50, according to UM’s new findings. National Poll on Healthy Aging.
See also: Pride in Practice: Improving LGBTQIA+ Health Education in Michigan Medical Schools
People over 50 who identify as LGBTQ+ are less likely than others to feel confident that they will receive support from multiple sources as they age and are more likely to experience discrimination in healthcare settings.
Survey, based at UM Institute for Healthcare Policy and InnovationSupported by the Academic Medical Center of Michigan Medicine, U-M.
The findings have implications not only for members of the LGBTQ+ community, but also for health and social service providers and policy makers.
Social support for aging LGBTQ+ community members
“LGBTQ+ adults are part of the families and friendships of most older Americans,” said Christy Gamarel, Ph.D., an associate professor at UM. School of Public Health and IHPI members who worked on the poll.
“LGBTQ+ older adults nonetheless face significant disparities, particularly in health care, at a time when supports built for them are being pushed back. Continued national data on this generation is essential,” said Gamarel.
Older LGBTQ+ adults were more likely to find local healthcare and social services welcoming than LGBTQ+ adults over the age of 50.
Overall, 71% of LGBTQ+ adults over 50 say their local healthcare services are welcoming to older LGBTQ+ adults, and 58% say their local social services are welcoming.
By comparison, when non-LGBTQ+ adults over 50 were asked if such services in their area were welcoming to older LGBTQ+ adults, only 40% said yes.
However, LGBTQ+ adults age 50 and older may feel less confident in the support they will receive than non-LGBTQ+ adults.
Specifically, LGBTQ+ adults over 50 feel less confident than non-LGBTQ+ adults that they will receive social support from organizations or resources in their community as they grow older (63% vs.
Gamarel and UM Center for Population Studies Postdoctoral fellow Wesley Correll-King, PhD, worked with the NPHA poll team to develop the questions and analyze the results.
“Older LGBTQ+ adults have lived through decades of social and political change affecting their communities. Current policy changes and those on the horizon may affect their confidence in accessing health care or community resources as they age,” said Correll-King, who will soon be an assistant professor at the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Health, healthcare and social systems
The survey also showed significant differences in self-rated health and social measures. Nineteen percent of LGBTQ+ adults over the age of 50 rated their mental health as fair or poor, compared to 11% of non-LGBTQ+ adults.
More than half (56%) of LGBTQ+ adults over 50 have a disability that limits their daily activities, compared to 41% of non-LGBTQ+ adults over 50, despite the LGBTQ+ group being younger on average.
Experiencing discrimination in healthcare settings was much more common among LGBTQ+ adults, with 12% saying they had been treated unfairly or discriminated against in the past year, compared to 5% of non-LGBTQ+ adults.
Staying connected, and encouraging more activities to increase social connection, can strengthen mental health and overall well-being.At the same time, I encourage providers to work to make their clinics welcoming and inclusive for all.
-Jeffrey Kullgren, MD, MS, MPH
The survey also found significant group differences in social connections. While 8% of non-LGBTQ+ adults over 50 said they often lacked companionship in the past year, the rate was more than double (20%) among LGBTQ+ over 50s. LGBTQ+ adults are three times more likely to feel isolated from others, 18% vs. 6% of adults.
Poll statistician Matthias Kirch, MS, also noted that LGBTQ+ adults in the poll sample were more likely than non-LGBTQ+ adults to report barriers to preventive care, dental care, and mental health care.
There were similar differences between these measures among non-LGBTQ+ adults aged 50–64 and among those over 65. Although LGBTQ+ adults were more likely to fall between the ages of 50–64, their barriers to care were higher across age groups, indicating that both age and LGBTQ+ identity influence access to care.
These findings suggest the need for health care providers to ask their LGBTQ+ patients about their social support networks and for health care organizations to reduce barriers to care, said poll director Jeffrey Kullgren, MD, MPH, MS.
“Staying connected, and encouraging more activities to increase social connections, can in turn strengthen mental health and overall well-being,” she said.
“At the same time, I encourage providers to work to make their clinics welcoming and inclusive for all.”
Kullgren is an associate professor of internal medicine at Michigan Medicine, the only health system in Michigan to earn leadership status. Health Equity Index in 2024For LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices.
Michigan Search
The poll team collected data from Michigan adults age 50 and older with contributions Michigan Health Endowment Fundas part of Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging.
Although the sample size of LGBTQ+ adults over 50 in Michigan was too small to show statistically significant differences compared to the national sample, the team noted differences between the larger Michigan sample and their peers in the rest of the country.
Specifically, Michiganders over 50 who are not LGBTQ+ were less likely to say they knew an LGBTQ+ person than the rest of the U.S. over 50 (64% vs. 69%).
Among Michiganders over 50 who say they know at least one LGBTQ+ person, 57% say that person is a friend, and 52% say they have a relative who is LGBTQ+. Additionally, 13% said they have a coworker who is LGBTQ+, and 6% said they have a neighbor.
There was no difference between the Michigan sample and the rest of the country in the percentage agreeing that health services or social services in their area were welcoming to LGBTQ+ people over 50.
About voting
The National Poll on Healthy Aging is a nationally representative survey conducted by the University of Chicago’s NORC for the UM Institute for Health Care Policy and Innovation. The survey was conducted online and by phone in September 2025 from the AmeriSpeak panel of 2,698 US adults ages 50 to 95, including 404 LGBTQ+ adults. The Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging included data from the AmeriSpeak Panel on 1,270 Michigan adults ages 50 to 93 and supplemental non-probability panel participants, including 51 LGBTQ+ adults, which were compared to 2,334 non-Michigan adults ages 50 to 9.
The poll asked respondents about their assigned gender at birth, sexual orientation, and gender identification. Although the poll included options for respondents to select answers including transgender, nonbinary, bisexual, or to indicate that they were using other terms for their sexual orientation or gender identification, the percentages selecting these options were not large enough to be analyzed separately. Non-LGBTQ+ adults are those who are heterosexual and cisgender, meaning they identify with the gender they were assigned at birth and are attracted to the opposite sex. All poll data is weighted to reflect the 50+ population nationally and in Michigan.
read onPast National Polls on Healthy Aging reportAndMichigan Poll on Healthy Aging ReportAnd Learn about poll methods.
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