Carol Alexander received a phone call from Sacramento County’s Meals on Wheels program last Friday and it wasn’t her usual case worker.
Alexander, 83, said she was hit with a barrage of about a half-dozen questions she considered invasive or unnecessary: What is your sex? Do you still associate with your gender? Are you heterosexual? Are you white or Hispanic?
“I was in shock. I took offense to that,” she said.
Alexander, who is white, said she didn’t understand why the surveyor asked whether she was Hispanic, but not about any other race.
And the string of questions relating to sexual orientation and transgender status irritated her.
“I’m ticked off. Why do they ask an 83-year-old this?”
Alexander said the caller told her new federal law necessitated these questions, but as local Meals on Wheels Program Director David Morikawa explained, it’s actually a direct response to new state legislation.
Morikawa said a new California law requires meal-delivery services to issue sexual and gender minorities (SGM) survey questions, potentially to any and all of the program’s recipients. It had already surveyed participants about ethnicity.
But response from the participants is voluntary, and won’t affect their service from the nonprofit organization.
“She doesn’t have to answer that,” Morikawa said.
As outlined in both Assembly Bill 959, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October 2015, and AB 677, signed last October, California’s LGBT Disparities Reduction Act went into effect July 1 this year.
Its first provisions call for four state departments, including the Department of Aging, to gather demographic data regarding sexual orientation and gender identity during the course of conducting surveys on ancestry or ethnic origin.
AB 959, penned by David Chiu, D-San Francisco, cites studies on same-sex couple poverty, hate crimes and health disparities as ample reason to collect widespread demographic data on the groups. LGBT populations have been found to have higher risk of cancer, mental illness, substance abuse and other adverse health conditions, Chiu explained.
“It is in the best interests of the state to respect, embrace, and understand the full diversity of its residents and to collect accurate data to effectively implement and deliver critical state services and programs,” the bill reads.
Seven additional agencies are due to adopt the policy by July 1: the Department of Education, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Department of Industrial Relations, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Employment Training Panel and the Employment Development Department (excluding the unemployment insurance program).
But Alexander, the Citrus Heights octogenarian who said she recently suffered a stroke, said she found the recent survey so offensive, she has considered leaving the Meals on Wheels program entirely.
“These are stupid,” she said of the questions. “It just blows my mind that they have to do this.”
Meals on Wheels by ACC Senior Services started serving Sacramento County and western Placer County in 2010. With 5,660 annual participants (2,387 getting home delivery, the rest getting meal site service), the organization estimates it serves about 500,000 meals a year in the region. More than 500 volunteers help serve and deliver both hot and frozen food.
“We just want to make sure we’re representing the people that are in our community,” said Morikawa, the program director.
Full story at Sacramento Bee.
If they refuse to answer are they left hungry? Folks who receive services from Meals on Wheels are already a vulnerable population, nosing around for even more personal information is just bullying. Shame!
According to the Sacramento Bee article, answering the questions is optional for recipients.
Technically optional, at least for now. Probably not too hard to get old, sick, physically diminished people to do what you want. And for what really? The satisfaction of liberal homosexualist politicians who want inflated numbers of LGBT folks. Leftist politics looking for power. Repeat – Shame!
Kristen, I agree with you. This is a two edged sword. Forcing volunteers or employees to ask such personal questions is also bad. Most do not want to do it. A government employee once asked my husband a very personal question on a census that had nothing to do with his citizenship or immigration status, and said that he had to ask it by law. My husband told him, I am not answering it, so you can just talk this old man to jail. The employee backed off.
How simple can it be– to simply GO FEED THE POOR in your community? The only questions that you should ask— are regarding dietary needs, and doctor’s prescriptions for those with illnesses, food allergies, etc. Are you diabetic? Do you have high blood pressure?
Heart disease? (etc.) Commonn sense, please!
Another example of why I left California. California run by lunatics!
So what if they are gay? Should not Meals on Wheels still feed them? For whatever you do to the least of these…
My basic concern is that some seniors might be falsely feel coerced into responding a certain way.
I do not believe such questioning would stand up in court.
But, I will ensue no donations are made by me to Meals on Wheels.
Please keep in mind that Meals on Wheels has no choice in this matter. They are required to do this by the Department on Aging.