Iowa’s Grand View University, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, is hosting the “Gay & Gray Summit” on August 6 in the school’s student center. According to a pro-LGBT website promoting the gathering, LGBT seniors – in addition to the challenges faced by those who are straight – “must also deal with … isolation, discrimination, and lack of understanding.”

Linda Harvey of Mission: America says organizers of the summit – by focusing on the needs and concerns of LGBT seniors – are basically implying that individuals who choose that lifestyle can live long and healthy lives, which oftentimes isn’t true.

“Statistics do not hold up when you look at the kinds of health problems, both chronic and otherwise, that crop up with older people who have been in the homosexual or transgendered lifestyle for very long,” she argues.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “gay” and bisexual men are more severely affected by HIV than any other group in the U.S. In 2012, people 55 and older accounted for one-fourth of all Americans living with HIV – and the CDC states that older Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with HIV infection later in the course of their disease.

As for the host university and its historical roots with the ELCA, Harvey says churches that embrace the homosexual lifestyle and support it are far from the will of God.

“It’s one more example where some of the most aggressive activism on homosexuality and transgender behavior is coming from Christian denominations – or what were formerly faithful Christian denominations – that have been deeply compromised,” she states.

Campus Reform reports that the ELCA denomination is split on the homosexual issue and that individual churches are free to adopt their own stance.