Federico Armenteros

For generations LGBTQ+ seniors in Spain have been invisible and unable to safely create community. Even today they still live alone in Spain at double the rate of the rest of the elderly population and their suicide rate is 50% higher than their non-LGBTQ+ peers. Federico is changing the mindset that has kept this system in place - even after many of the legal barriers were removed - by putting LGBTQ+ seniors in charge of building new opportunities for themselves to co-create and lead their best, authentic lives.

Federico’s new idea is deeply informed by his own personal journey. At the age of 36 he came out as gay. At the age of 50, the economic crisis of 2008 left him without a profession as a social educator with marginalized youth. He decided to use this opportunity to find out, in his own words, “who I really am.” At that inflection point in his life he went on a journey of personal transformation focused on what it meant for someone to be both gay and at an age in Spain that was widely viewed as the beginning of the “last stage” of life when people retire and cease to be active contributors.

His new idea - then and now - is that it is possible to overcome the “double stigma” of being both gay and aging in a given metro area when that aging LGBTQ+ community has the confidence to set about doing three things. The first is to create safe spaces where the rapidly growing number of LGBTQ+ elders can interact with each other as well as their families, acquaintances, and empathic young people who self-identify as LGBTQ. The second element is to introduce these emerging communities to influencers in their metro area in a position to open up new paths of possibility for the members of that aging LGBTQ+ community. The third element is to move the now increasingly confident aging communities from their safe spaces to replicating those same conditions in public and private institutions – by creating the standards and regulations to codify their continuing use in the workplace and health care settings for the next generation of aging LGBTQ+ community members.

The near doubling of human life expectancy in developed countries is taken as one of the greatest achievements in human history. Yet it came at such speed that the social institutions, economic policies, and social norms that evolved when people lived for half as long are no longer up to the task. In the prevailing, outdated model, people are assumed to trundle from one stage to another, as though on a conveyor belt: a student until their early 20s, a worker until the age of 65, and a retiree in whatever years remain. There is little accounting in the 20th century model for family structures that are different or disrupted, or for the deep, systemic disparities imposed by race, gender, poverty, health, or other factors.

As Spain and nearby European countries experience increasing longevity, they are also experiencing aging LGBTQ communities as a larger percentage of their total populations. For example, Spain’s average life expectancy is now at 82 years, making it the second highest in the world and the percentage of its population that is 65 and over is now 20.5% and growing at a rate equivalent to 1.5% of the total population per year. Nearby European countries (France, Italy Germany, Switzerland) also report high life expectancy and similar percentages of population age 65 and up. And while the percentage of those self-reporting as LGBTQ is low – in Spain, it is 6.9% - studies also point to under-reporting of actual LGBTQ status across all age groups. The total LGBTQ+ population in Spain, at a minimum, is not captured by current studies (it is estimated to be nearer 10%). Furthermore, the size of the LGBTQ population in Spain (and nearby countries) as a percentage of the total population will likely increase rapidly (assuming the LGBTQ+ population as a percentage of the elderly population tracks with the size of the overall size of the 65 year and older population).

An historical perspective is also helpful in assessing the crucial importance of confidence-building in Federico’s work with Spain’s aging LGBTQ population. For example, if you become 65 in 2023 you were born in 1958 and came of age in Franco’s Spain. Until the mid-1970s gay people were arrested and the men sent to special prison camps. It wasn’t until 2001 when the process began of removing these records from people’s personal files, and it was not until 2008 when LGBTQ+ people who were jailed during the Franco regime were recognized as political dissenters and the government began to pay them reparations.

LGBTQ+ seniors have been invisible for institutions, society and within the broader LGBTQ+ community, resulting in the lack of policies, actions, and resources that ensure they have a healthy and active life as they grow old. Working for their empowerment and recognition in later stages of their lives has never been in the political, institutional, and private agenda and hence, the current plan for an active senior society disregards the various psycho-sexual, psycho-affective and gender identities that should also learn to speak up for their needs and rights, and redefine their survival approach to life, to an empowered, fearless, and self-determining lifestyle.

Federico is creating a new architecture for elderly LGTBQ+ people to improve their quality of life, by shifting their role from invisible to active citizens. He has created an intergenerational community that creates safe and diverse environments in the health sector, workplaces, universities, and public administrations.

The first step is to instill confidence and create a changemaking atmosphere in Spain’s aging LGBTQ+ metro communities. Federico begins by creating opportunities in community centers or online, inviting people who identify as LGBTQ+ to connect through leisure activities. He and his team have created a step-by-step approach that allows participants to be part of a community (from isolation to family) to listen, understand, share their talent, wisdom, and empathy, and create connections to lead together.

The catalyst in this process is the mutually positive relationships built among seniors and young people. The initial idea of the community was for empathetic LGBTQ+ young people to connect the elderly members of the group with the “reality of today,”. However, the first groups demonstrated that the relationship was as beneficial for the youth as for the seniors, creating emotional ties and understanding through activities, debates, and sharing of personal experiences.

Young people are not required to form part of the LGBTQ+ collective, but more than 80% of the groups have young people who identify as LGBTQ+. The youngsters are recruited from other NGOs with which Fundación 26 Diciembre has alliances, through outreach campaigns in social media, social spaces related to the collective, and from personal recommendations. The groups have at least one or two leadership profiles guaranteeing that every new member receives a complete onboarding process. Their role is also to coach and ensure that everyone in the community contributes and innovates.

The next step is for the groups to discover, discuss and initiate projects. These begin as health-related work where the younger volunteers assist with in-home visits, health checks, organizing day-care, residential care, and even end-of-life care. As confidence and trust grow, more and more proposals come from an intergenerational perspective and range from youth members setting up workshops to help the older generation manage technology, meditate, practice, or even understand veganism; to the older generation offering more traditional activities like photography or LGBTQ+ film nights in conjunction with local cinemas. Elders teach young people about their struggle, and the importance of continuing to fight for the hard-won rights, inspiring them to continue to push for equality and to celebrate their wins. Younger members who, despite societal advances, continue to feel awkward, out of place, and lonely, find not only sage advice and role models but also a peer network allowing them to grow in confidence and knowledge.

This shift to active community contributors leads to greater confidence and empathy. At the suggestion of one of the members, Federico and his team expanded the approach to the incarcerated population, setting up intergenerational groups tasked with improving their situation within the prison. The groups have taken on a new challenge, on their own initiative and completely self-led, to create a New Life community group set up by released prisoners who offer assistance, advice, and contacts to those prisoners who are due for parole. Other groups have created a “Successful Ageing Programme” where the elders present proposals to the younger members about diet, exercise, sleep, drug and alcohol abuse, sexuality in later life etc. This program is colloquially referred to as “Please don’t follow my example: lessons I learned the hard way”.

These activities have been essential for the elderly to take ownership of their identity, reinforce their agency and encourage a participative role in society. Increased confidence and agency have been demonstrated in ratios of those no longer scared to attend health visits, (an increase of +20%) or to demand existing social benefits (+80%). More importantly, there has been a 300% increase in the elderly attending social participation activities.

Federico moves the now increasingly confident aging communities from their safe spaces to replicating those same conditions in public and private institutions – by creating the standards and regulations to codify their continuing use in the workplace and healthcare settings for the next generation of the aging LGBTQ+ community.

One area of focus for the communities is new approaches to living facilities for LGBTQ+ seniors. In Madrid, their input has been crucial to the design and conception of a senior living facility designated for LGBTQ seniors and similar projects are in the design stage in 5 different cities. This will be the first publicly funded specialized LGBTQ+ residential facility worldwide and serve as a blueprint for adaption to other countries and cultures.

In terms of general health and caregiving, other communities have worked closely with Federico to tease out and validate the key insights for the LGBTQ+ elderly collective as concerns their specific health and wellbeing needs in general residences, day-care centers, care in the home, etc. This has been translated into a protocol that has now been adapted in over 70 caregiving entities and has led to a universal quality assurance seal, an idea originally suggested by one of the community members.

With this success, Federico was ready to go far beyond seniors’ healthcare and began designing a new architecture for private companies. Federico got the local community groups to work with Fundacion 26 Diciembre to propose and discuss content and methodology. Members were responsible for deciding on topics but were also key to contributing creativity to the format, proud to furnish the content with personal anecdotes, photos, and physical appearances in face-to-face workshops.

More than 30 big companies have received this approach very positively, including Vodaphone and Inditex. The Foundation has recently been nominated as a Preferred Training Partner by LinkedIn, through which they reach approximately 150,000 people each year. Federico and the community groups are working with these contacts to see how they can materialize new opportunities for older LGBTQ+ people: ideas range from committees to give input on advertising materials that highlight diversity, to product testing or even personal presentations. Almost 70% of these companies have employed at least one person from the 50+ LGTBQ+ collective. Fundación 26 de Diciembre has helped almost all of them to improve their recruitment process in terms of diversity.

Federico’s team has also levered a media campaign to help them build credibility, create alliances and construct new narratives. One of the most important alliances is with universities; the Foundation is the facilitator between university students, professors, and community groups and has co-led several research collaborations and academic studies. The Foundation recruits its community groups to be interviewed or to review university projects. One such example is the paper "Age with Pride" co-created with the University of Madrid which challenges the common stereotypes of seniors and shows how they can be active contributors to society. This paper is now being translated into a series of workshops. Members of community groups with legal backgrounds are working on proposals for legislation that will make inclusive training mandatory in all university degrees related to caregiving and social work.

The alliances within Spain have facilitated bridges to Latin America specifically to universities in Uruguay, Mexico, and Colombia. Replicating the same methodology, older LGBTQ+ working groups have contributed to content and case studies in specific training modules in the fields of clinical psychology and geriatrics.

Through his work with the community groups, the researchers, and his own team, Federico presented the content of a White Paper on Psychosocial Intervention on Key Affective and Health Issues in the Care of the Elderly. Many of the Madrid community groups were at the Regional Parliament to cheer on their efforts when the White Paper was approved. This process is now used as a model for four other regions in Spain.

Similarly, the community’s knowledge and dissemination work has led to introduction of two main non-discriminatory laws developed by the Madrid government. Madrid is the most influential city in Spain, and changes here tend to be adopted by other regions. Federico is now working to create similar groups to replicate his tried and tested Madrid metro models in other regions, such as Asturias and Canarias. On the one hand, he shares his methodology for building community groups with local LQBTQ+ organizations; on the other, he assists them in procuring physical spaces from local authorities.

As the Foundation’s work is known to be based on the workings and proposals of the communities - a wide cross-section of the older LGBTQ+ community, with younger generation LGBTQ and interested non-LGBTQ parties - they are now considered “the voice” of the collective. This has led to a presentation in the Spanish Senate in 2020, with Federico communicating several grassroots proposals that have been used as a basis to reframe ageism in Spain legally.

The fact that the Foundation has such credibility continues to inspire the groups to tackle issues related to ageism and wider diversity-related topics such as gender and migration. With these proposals, Federico works in close partnership with the State Entity IMSERSO (The Institute for the Elderly and Social Services), with the Ministry of Equality and the Ministry of the Interior. With Enrique, a community member, Federico contacted city-level government agencies in Sao Paulo delivering services to the elderly, and facilitated inclusive training workshops and groups, inspiring them to follow his community-led example.

Finally, Fundación 26 de Diciembre maintains an active agenda of institutional relations, in Spain and in Europe, as a co-founding member of the AGE Platform Europe, a European network of non-profit organizations of and for people aged 50+, which aims to voice and promote the interests of the 200 million citizens aged 50+ in the European Union and to raise awareness on the issues that concern them most. Being part of a supranational organization such as AGE helps to put older people in all their diversity on the European social and political agenda. Together with the other members of AGE, Federico works for the common goals of older people such as ageism, defense of pensions and social protection. Again, the community groups are those who offer proposals and content to Federico, contributing to the needs and specifications of diverse and minority groups. Besides AGE, Federico partners with ILGA and ELC European organizations that advise governments on diversity matters to push forward Federico’s ideas.

Federico is a serial social entrepreneur. Raised in a conservative and grey environment (years of dictatorship), he managed to mobilize his neighbors and organize popular parties in his neighborhood at the age of five. He studied in a socially conscious school that planted in him the seed of being able to change things and build a better world. At school, he played an important role in creating assemblies and bringing together communities of young people to talk about their concerns and ideals.
  
Homosexuality was considered a mental health problem up until 1990 and, at the age of 16, his mother reported him to the Police under the Social Danger Law of 1970 (homosexuals were considered a social danger and could be imprisoned), hoping that they could help him. Federico at that time did not identify as homosexual and managed to run away from his city and his family. He then met a priest who sponsored him, guided him, and paved the way for him to become a priest. He was expelled from the seminary as those around him thought that he may be homosexual, although it would take him 10 more years to recognize this himself as such, a period in which he married his wife and had a daughter. 
  
When he was 18, he started working as a caregiver for people with disabilities without any training or experience. He understood that untrained workers were not ideal and managed to reorganize caregiver education and contracting to incorporate mandatory training. At the age of 30, after many years of struggle, he managed to get the profession of social educator officially recognized by the education system. Thanks to Federico, today there is a diploma in social work and a professional association for social educators where he is the Honorary President.
 
Beyond creating an official diploma, Federico's key achievement was to change the mindset of social educators; from a paternalistic we-know-best approach to a focus on the users, their participation in creating solutions, and their responsibility for their implementation. Working with unaccompanied excluded minors, homelessness, drug addiction, etc., made him realize that the intervention model had to change. The kids did not want or accept the resources offered by the system, they wanted their voices heard and opportunities to give their opinion on how to participate in society again. 
  
At the age of 36, he came out as gay, with the full support of his wife, and was tremendously happy, and free and continued to work as a social educator. Yet when social expenditure was reduced due to the economic crisis of 2008, he found himself aged 50 in a very vulnerable situation without a job and with little prospect of finding one because of his double condition of being gay and of advanced age. At that time, he began to think about the challenges of the elder LGTBIQ+ community.

After researching and knowing the reality firsthand, he created a project to make them visible and live their last stage of life as active contributors. The date Federico chose for naming the foundation, December 26, commemorates the day in 1978 that homosexuality was decriminalized in Spain.