Stockholm gets its first LGBT retirement home

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Sweden has opened its first senior housing facility for LGBT people in central Stockholm.

In order to get an apartment in the eight-storey Rainbow senior housing complex, a tenant must be 55-years-old, or older.

Torgny Engström moved into the Rainbow apartments last week. He told Radio Sweden that there are several benefits to the facility.

“Because it is located in central Stockholm, and also because I’m living with like-minded people. I’m almost 70 years old and I don’t need to run out to  the art galleries or the malls. I’d like to stay at home and here – one finds friends,” he said.

Research in the UK has shown older gay and bisexual men are three times more likely than heterosexual men to be living alone.

While nine out of ten older heterosexual people have children, the same is true for just over a quarter of gay and bisexual men and half of lesbians and bisexual women.