Openly Gay - 65 Years Apart - The Randy Report

Contents:

• WHEN I'M OLD AND GAY
• OPENLY GAY – 65 YEARS APART
• THEY LIVED A 'DOUBLE LIFE' FOR S. NOW, THE GAY ELRS ARE TELLG THEIR STORI.
• GAY RIGHTS
• GAY MEN AND AGG
• LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENR AGG
• THE GAY 60'S, 70'S, 80'S AND 90'S
• THE GAY MAN'S GUI TO DATG AFTER 50

WHEN I'M OLD AND GAY

A planned rintial muny for olr gay men, lbians, and transgenred people, "the Cove" was then an empty 165-acre plot 20 outsi of Boone, a small universy town the Blue Ridge Mountas. The gay retirement villas sproutg up at the turn of the lennium were far more mercial-and planned-than those early "gayborhoods, " but at a basic level what they offered was siar: sulatn om prejudice, plac where queer people were ee to be queer. Wh the baby-boomer generatn on the cp of retirement and the enomy chuggg along at full speed, gay and lbian entreprenrs saw an opportuny to create retreats for people like themselv and sh on the emergg market of 1.

Thirty years om now, given the dramatic rise public support for gay rights, queer retire will be able to take for granted that they will be accepted and unrstood any retirement settg. In June, the Supreme Court stck down the Defense of Marriage Act, puttg some gay upl on equal legal footg wh straight upl for the first time, but that's ltle help to olr gay upl who have missed out on s' worth of tax and surance those factors leave queer senrs wh fewer retirement optns than their straight unterparts.

's lol outreach director for SAGE (Servic and Advocy for GLBT Elrs), the untry's largt advocy anizatn for olr gay folk, Woody nducts sensivy trag for nursg-home staff and nnects low-e elrly wh public hog and HIV/AIDS servic.

OPENLY GAY – 65 YEARS APART

"I worked five nursg hom over 27 years, and I only enuntered one man-only one-who was openly gay, " says Mary Blanchett, a licensed nursg-home admistrator who formerly ran a group that helps gay senrs plan for retirement.

"Accurate data about olr gay people's liv are hard to e by, partly bee while feral law requir elrre stutns to report statistics on other groups of mory rints, that's not the se wh queer folk.

Conservative Christian rints and staffers, ncerned for gay people's mortal souls, openly pray for them to leave the "homosexual liftyle" or actively try to nvert their own hom, LGBT senrs often fear mistreatment at the hands of home health-re workers if they're open about themselv.

THEY LIVED A 'DOUBLE LIFE' FOR S. NOW, THE GAY ELRS ARE TELLG THEIR STORI.

C., a social club for olr gay and bisexual men, says group members joke about the need to "-gay" the hoe-queer perdils like The Advote go at the bottom of the stack, pictur of a same-sex partner are moved to an isolated room.

Ageism is prevalent among gay men-the joke is that you're ad at 30-and fuels the lonels that often acpani old Timers, like other social groups for olr gays, is signed to be an antidote to that lonels. Some are not out broar society, but the group's weekly meetgs provi a pot of ntact wh the gay muny, a place to make iends, fd lovers, and trend toward agg place is reflected an creasg mand for retirement optns the urban centers that are the heart of gay culture.

GAY RIGHTS

While all of the velopments are for low-e people, Kilbourn says Openhoe hop to break ground on middle-class plex the wh the new velopments, however, few gay retire will have the optn of livg an all-gay environment. For members of the Stonewall generatn, 's a btersweet irony: While old age is ght wh difficulti, they have laid the groundwork for retirement to ultimately be jt as gay-iendly as the streets of Chelsea.

GAY MEN AND AGG

This “chat across the ag” featur openly gay 13 year-old Louis and openly gay 78 year-old Percy who have a chat about the differenc 50 years have ma on gay culture and acceptance. At the end of the chat, Louis asks for wisdom for future LGBTs, to which Percy shar, “Stand up for beg gay, and for actually tryg to make people unrstand that the most important thg is that you n love somebody and don’t matter who they are. Ma llaboratn wh London Pri and BBC2 wh their new documentary ‘Agast The Law’ which will be released at the end of "chat across the ag" featur openly gay 13 year-old Louis and openly gay 78 year-old Percy who have a chat about the differenc 50 years have ma on gay culture and acceptance.

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENR AGG

”At the end of the chat, Louis asks for wisdom for future LGBTs, to which Percy shar, “Stand up for beg gay, and for actually tryg to make people unrstand that the most important thg is that you n love somebody and don’t matter who they are.

THE GAY 60'S, 70'S, 80'S AND 90'S

”“What bothered me the most was havg to talk to the guys that were beg discharged, and they were not a good state of wellns anyway, bee at that time, was illegal or nsired mental problems to be gay, ” he Cunngham, 82, and Richard Prtt, 78, have llectively spent 115 years the closet.

The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn also classified homosexualy as a mental disorr the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs until 1973, when that classifitn was replaced wh “sexual orientatn disturbance. Rearch published the journal The Gerontologist last fall found that lbian, gay and bisexual people have a higher risk of mentia and gnive cle than heterosexual people as they grow olr.

THE GAY MAN'S GUI TO DATG AFTER 50

The study’s thors found that the creased risk was partially due to higher rat of prsn that olr LGBTQ people experience due to workplace discrimatn, shame and other stigma associated wh their stigma still persists, but the elrs and producers behd “Not Another Send” hope their project n help, even if jt a small Cooper lived her whole life as an openly gay woman New York Cy. The Early Gay Rights Movement In 1924, Henry Gerber, a German immigrant, found Chigo the Society for Human Rights, the first documented gay rights anizatn the Uned Stat.

Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.