LGBT Civil Rights Group Hits Senior Living Facility With Fair Housing Suit Alleging It Failed To Protect Elderly Gay Resident After Being Made Aware Of Harassment By Other Residents

In Niles, Illinois, WBBM-TV Channel 2 reports:

• An LGBT civil rights organization has filed what it considers to be a groundbreaking lawsuit against a senior living facility, alleging it failed to protect a lesbian from harassment by other residents.
  
  Lambda Legal(1) senior attorney Karen Loewy said, a couple months after Marsha Wetzel moved in to Glen Saint Andrew Living Community in Niles, the 68-year-old woman became the target of gay slurs and worse from other residents.
  
  “She has been taunted about her relationship with Judy [her partner of 30 years] and their son, she has been spit on, she has been threatened with bodily harm, she has been bullied, and she has been intimidated. She has also been physically injured by other residents ,” Loewy said.
  
  In a lawsuit filed [] in federal court , Wetzel claims Glen Saint Andrew [] violated the federal Fair Housing Act and the Illinois Human Rights Act by doing nothing to stop the “severe and pervasive” discrimination and harassment against Wetzel.
  
  The lawsuit further alleges the facility retaliated against Wetzel when she complained, by accusing her of lying and banning her from public spaces in the facility.
  
  Loewy said the lawsuit is the first she’s aware of that accuses a residential facility of not protecting a gay person from harassment by other residents.

For the story, see Lesbian Accuses Niles Senior Center Of Allowing Harassment.

For the lawsuit, see Wetzel v. Glen St. Andrew Living Community, LLC, et al.

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(1) Lambda Legal is a New York City-based non-profit civil rights law firm that advocates for the rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work. nursing home assisted living facility