{"id":61754,"date":"2026-05-15T14:30:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/?p=61754"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:30:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:30:42","slug":"lgbtq-elders-face-immense-abuse-within-care-homes-as-portrayed-within-at-the-rainbows-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/lgbtq-elders-face-immense-abuse-within-care-homes-as-portrayed-within-at-the-rainbows-end\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBTQ+ elders face immense abuse within care homes as portrayed within \u2018At The Rainbows End\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Artemis Theatre Company based in London founded in 2002 by Dr Clare Summerskill has finished performing &#8216;At The Rainbows End&#8217; at the Broomhill Centre and is now continuing its tour around England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clare Summerskill, 64, the artistic director of Artemis Theatre Company, living in London said: \u201cI never had a group of contributors who were so keen to tell their stories, because they knew that it&#8217;s in telling other people, raising awareness, and creating discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Summerskill felt a connection with Sylvia&#8217;s and Maggie&#8217;s experience. Being in a woman loving woman relationship and sharing the abuse they faced within their homes by their neighbours presented the intense marginalisation faced within everyday life.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She added: \u201cThey reached out and they couldn&#8217;t get anyone to help them and it&#8217;s pretty hard to keep on fighting, especially when you are gay and maybe you&#8217;ve been gay for a large part of your life. There&#8217;s going to be a point where I feel like I haven&#8217;t got the strength to keep fighting the system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said, many elderly LGBTQ+ members are fearful of growing old, what awaits them within the care system, she adds: \u201cThey know they won&#8217;t be out anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey&#8217;re worried that if they get dementia, that they won&#8217;t know what things slip out or how they&#8217;ll be treated, they won&#8217;t be able to monitor themselves about what they tell other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said that elders would rather die than go into the care system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the play represents the care system, Dr Summerskill encourages those in positions of power to take notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said: \u201cThese are the people that can affect the change in the systems, not the lowly carer. I say that being a carer myself, I know that a carer doesn&#8217;t have any power to change a system, and this system needs changing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What she wishes people took away from her play is for people to recognise elders as having a past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said: &#8220;It&#8217;s very easy for all of us to meet anybody in a care home or otherwise and think you are just an old person.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;But you&#8217;re not. You&#8217;re all those things that have happened in the decades before you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artemis Theatre Company based in London founded in 2002 by Dr Clare Summerskill has finished performing &#8216;At The Rainbows End&#8217; at the Broomhill Centre and is now continuing its tour around England. Clare Summerskill, 64, the artistic director of Artemis Theatre Company, living in London said: \u201cI never had a group of contributors who were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":61758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5,132,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news","category-top-stories","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61773,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61754\/revisions\/61773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}