Professor Mark Hughes

Definition: Caregiving among the LGBT community refers to the informal unpaid care provided to or received from members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. This may include partners, family members, friends, and neighbors.
Overview: Most caregiving models have been based on the experiences of people who are white, western, middle-class, heterosexual, and cisgender (where gender identity conforms to sex ascribed at birth) (Fredriksen-Goldsen and Hooyman 2007; Parslow and Hegarty 2013). Only recently has the experience of LGBT people been considered – mainly within western societies of North America, Europe, and Australasia. This is despite a greater likelihood that LGBT people will be caregivers compared to non-LGBT people (National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP Public Policy Institute 2015).