This was originally an academic blog I submitted December 2, 2010 for a gerontology class. But I came across this video while on the USC website. In the video SC students and alumni reassure struggling LGBT youth that the future is bright. Thought i'd share it with you all!
LGBT Aging ~ A look at the struggles and challenges faced by the LGBT elder community during the aging process. An exploration of the impact of the LGBT elder community on the larger LGBT community and the rest of society.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
RainbowVision Re-Visited ~
I received a very thoughtful comment from the National Director of Marketing and Sales at RainbowVision, Jane Steinberg, following my blog post on RainbowVision. I wish to address this and clarify some things about the project that I learned from this comment.
First off I'd like to thank Jane Steinberg for taking the time to write to me. And I would also like to thank the producer/director of the "In the Life" piece on RainbowVision, Mike Jacoby, without whom I might not have come across RainbowVision.
You should all know that RainbowVision is the ONLY community in the world that offers a continuum of care of LGBT and allies. The goal at RainbowVision is not just to provide housing to people who are alone, but to provide housing to everyone. To give you all a real idea of what RainbowVision is all about, I'd like to quote Ms. Steinberg's beautifully worded comment, "Everyone needs a sense of family, family of choice whether single, partnered, divorced, etc. RainbowVision is a Community of Living Diversity: sexual orientation, partnership status, age, religion, race, etc. RainbowVision is a community where one can live in freedom and acceptance".
Taking another look at this, it only confirms that RainbowVision is a positive force to cultivate acceptance and provide people comfort and a sense of family and community. Ms. Steinberg wrote, "Our many allies who live at RainbowVision expressly wanted the diversity that we offer." The people living in RainbowVision do not just want an isolated community of LGBT elders, but rather a community of diversity where LGBT elders can feel just as comfortable as anyone else in any other demographic. I think that often we focus a lot on how the LGBT community is "different" or separate from the rest of society. But the truth is, we are all different - whether it be how we look, act, feel, or think. And every difference deserves attention and tolerance. The intricacies of society is one of the many blessings of humanity.
Not only this, but RainbowVision has really been thoughtful about the project being sustainable for the future. As Ms. Steinberg writes, "we come prepared for our second fifty years: financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Becoming a community member will not automatically change our true nature, unless we are willing and committed to working and changing on a very deep personal level".
It may interest you all to know that RainbowVision's youngest member is 45! This is truly a community focused on diverse living and creating a world of acceptance for all.
First off I'd like to thank Jane Steinberg for taking the time to write to me. And I would also like to thank the producer/director of the "In the Life" piece on RainbowVision, Mike Jacoby, without whom I might not have come across RainbowVision.
You should all know that RainbowVision is the ONLY community in the world that offers a continuum of care of LGBT and allies. The goal at RainbowVision is not just to provide housing to people who are alone, but to provide housing to everyone. To give you all a real idea of what RainbowVision is all about, I'd like to quote Ms. Steinberg's beautifully worded comment, "Everyone needs a sense of family, family of choice whether single, partnered, divorced, etc. RainbowVision is a Community of Living Diversity: sexual orientation, partnership status, age, religion, race, etc. RainbowVision is a community where one can live in freedom and acceptance".
Taking another look at this, it only confirms that RainbowVision is a positive force to cultivate acceptance and provide people comfort and a sense of family and community. Ms. Steinberg wrote, "Our many allies who live at RainbowVision expressly wanted the diversity that we offer." The people living in RainbowVision do not just want an isolated community of LGBT elders, but rather a community of diversity where LGBT elders can feel just as comfortable as anyone else in any other demographic. I think that often we focus a lot on how the LGBT community is "different" or separate from the rest of society. But the truth is, we are all different - whether it be how we look, act, feel, or think. And every difference deserves attention and tolerance. The intricacies of society is one of the many blessings of humanity.
Not only this, but RainbowVision has really been thoughtful about the project being sustainable for the future. As Ms. Steinberg writes, "we come prepared for our second fifty years: financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Becoming a community member will not automatically change our true nature, unless we are willing and committed to working and changing on a very deep personal level".
It may interest you all to know that RainbowVision's youngest member is 45! This is truly a community focused on diverse living and creating a world of acceptance for all.
A look at "Gray Gays" & the Elderly LGBT Community ~
"Gray Gays"
I came across another brief, but compelling documentary. It really does a great job exposing the struggles faced by gay elders in the aging progress in all facets of their lives.
The first thing the documentary does is exposes and dispels the myth that gays are all "young, carefree and wild". The idea, as presented in the documentary, is that as gays begin to age they seem to disappear. This completely contradicts the facts, however, that their are 1.5 million gay elders in America.
One elder who was interviewed on the video, Cedric Burgess, Age 57 says, "I am 57 years old, gay, black and proud." Burgess says that as you begin to age as a person in the LGBT community life can become isolated. There is not much social life because when you get older "nobody wants you." Burgess is HIV positive and his partner died of AIDS ten years ago. He frequently finds himself trying to go to bars, but when he goes he feels out of place and alone. Sometimes people will even stare and snicker because of the societal expectation that all social life for the LGBT community occurs during youth.
But he refuses to give into this society-pushed isolation. He has birds that give him constant company and is also regularly in touch with his friends and family. He keeps his mind occupied with volunteer work and reaching out to his community. The problem is that some people are not as fortunate as Burgess to have a supportive family or friend base and can find themselves completely isolated as they age.
But isolation is just one of the many special challenges that LGBT elders face. One woman in the video comments, "Until people realize older LGBT folks are out there, it is hard for the community to get the broader population to care about the issue."
The thing is that LGBT elders face what has been termed a "double invisibility." First they are invisible for being elderly and second for being members of the LGBT community. This doubled invisibility coupled with the homophobia/heterosexism of society can create an entire "generational invisibility".
Even though there are services for LGBT elders available, the service providers don't know how to reach the community because many of the members do not reach out for help, and just accept their isolation.
But not everyone is this passive. One man aged 60 says that he expects to be a full AARP members and demands to be treated respectfully.
Right now the LGBT elder community faces an internal struggle for recognition within the LGBT community and an external struggle to be recognized by the rest of America.
I came across another brief, but compelling documentary. It really does a great job exposing the struggles faced by gay elders in the aging progress in all facets of their lives.
The first thing the documentary does is exposes and dispels the myth that gays are all "young, carefree and wild". The idea, as presented in the documentary, is that as gays begin to age they seem to disappear. This completely contradicts the facts, however, that their are 1.5 million gay elders in America.
One elder who was interviewed on the video, Cedric Burgess, Age 57 says, "I am 57 years old, gay, black and proud." Burgess says that as you begin to age as a person in the LGBT community life can become isolated. There is not much social life because when you get older "nobody wants you." Burgess is HIV positive and his partner died of AIDS ten years ago. He frequently finds himself trying to go to bars, but when he goes he feels out of place and alone. Sometimes people will even stare and snicker because of the societal expectation that all social life for the LGBT community occurs during youth.
But he refuses to give into this society-pushed isolation. He has birds that give him constant company and is also regularly in touch with his friends and family. He keeps his mind occupied with volunteer work and reaching out to his community. The problem is that some people are not as fortunate as Burgess to have a supportive family or friend base and can find themselves completely isolated as they age.
But isolation is just one of the many special challenges that LGBT elders face. One woman in the video comments, "Until people realize older LGBT folks are out there, it is hard for the community to get the broader population to care about the issue."
The thing is that LGBT elders face what has been termed a "double invisibility." First they are invisible for being elderly and second for being members of the LGBT community. This doubled invisibility coupled with the homophobia/heterosexism of society can create an entire "generational invisibility".
Even though there are services for LGBT elders available, the service providers don't know how to reach the community because many of the members do not reach out for help, and just accept their isolation.
But not everyone is this passive. One man aged 60 says that he expects to be a full AARP members and demands to be treated respectfully.
Right now the LGBT elder community faces an internal struggle for recognition within the LGBT community and an external struggle to be recognized by the rest of America.
It Gets Better! (2)
One important facet of LGBT aging is the influence that the older LGBT community has on LGBT youth. More and more people are coming out to say that life improves as you get more comfortable in your own skin and as people's minds continue to become more open. The growing presence of the LGBT aging community can be a beneficial force for the youth who are struggling with identity crises and bullying. While it is important to recognize the ways in which the LGBT aging community does not have access to adequate resources for their comfort or even for their survival, it is just as important to recognize what progress has been made. Neil Patrick Harris and Ellen Degeneres do a particularly good job encouraging the LGBT youth to keep living, to work through the trying times, so that they can live to be happier later in life.
Neil Patrick Harris says, "There is no needs to harm yourself if something is going bad - act with strength, act with courage, act with class, stand tall and be proud of who you are." He also adds, "When you get older, you find that people are actually drawn towards individuals with different points of view who are proud of who they are, and who make interesting, different and unique choices." Instead of focusing on the ways in which homosexual teens are different from other teens, Harris focuses on the idea that everyone is different, and homosexuality is just one way that people are different, but it is no different from other differences that separate us from one another and make ourselves our own original beings. He reminds youth that the LGBT community is being granted more and more rights and assures them that progress will continue in that direction.
Ellen's video is a message to LGBT youth and to the rest of society. She says that the suicides are a wakeup call that teenage bullying and teasing is climbing. She says that "one life lost is a tragedy, four lives lost is a crises". She mentions that there are many people suffering in silence, struggling to figure out who they are. She blames the ignorance and intolerance of society for putting additional stress on teens and for continuing to allow this to happen. But her final message to the youth is one of optimism, "things will get easier. People's lives will change and you should be alive to see it."
Neil Patrick Harris
Ellen DeGeneres
Neil Patrick Harris says, "There is no needs to harm yourself if something is going bad - act with strength, act with courage, act with class, stand tall and be proud of who you are." He also adds, "When you get older, you find that people are actually drawn towards individuals with different points of view who are proud of who they are, and who make interesting, different and unique choices." Instead of focusing on the ways in which homosexual teens are different from other teens, Harris focuses on the idea that everyone is different, and homosexuality is just one way that people are different, but it is no different from other differences that separate us from one another and make ourselves our own original beings. He reminds youth that the LGBT community is being granted more and more rights and assures them that progress will continue in that direction.
Ellen's video is a message to LGBT youth and to the rest of society. She says that the suicides are a wakeup call that teenage bullying and teasing is climbing. She says that "one life lost is a tragedy, four lives lost is a crises". She mentions that there are many people suffering in silence, struggling to figure out who they are. She blames the ignorance and intolerance of society for putting additional stress on teens and for continuing to allow this to happen. But her final message to the youth is one of optimism, "things will get easier. People's lives will change and you should be alive to see it."
Neil Patrick Harris
Ellen DeGeneres
Saturday, November 27, 2010
A look into the life of long time activist Amber Halloway
Amber Halloway became an activist as a 15 year old. Growing up as a poor girl in California, Amber was given a scholarship to attend a school of ruling class students in Switzerland. After nearly flunking out, she joined her professor and his family as members of the communist party and spent time alongside Lebanese communists doing activist work. Amber, a woman with a very impressive resume of different activist work, now turns her attention to a the LGBT community. This is her talk at the Sager Symposium on aging for LGBT elders and the importance of paying attention to all demographics when fighting for social change. As she says, "I'm interested in movement for social change through a lifetime, not generational or situational change."
See her video below or at this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/SagerSymposium#p/u/4/G89zXtIT58k
Amber begins by talking how absent LGBT aging is from conversation, both in the context of social justice and in terms of "queer issues". She makes an interesting point that aging is not considered an important political issue in the dialogue of change because aging is not look at as a "queer issue." The limits of identity politics for queer people means that when something that is not identified as queer becomes an issue, the activist community has problems figuring out how to fight for it, no matter how "profoundly impactful" they are.
In terms of what is seen as an LGBT issue, marriage is generally on the top of the list, whereas universal health care and aging often do not make the cut. Aging is looked at as the process of creating a dependent, less vital, less important community. Some people when thinking of LGBT elders have even said, "we don't have any of those".
But as America's baby boomer generation is getting old, the demographic of the country is going to change. In other words, there is about to be a huge constituency here that we are entirely unprepared for. And this is not just people in their 50s, but people in their 80s who currently are not even being considered. As Amber says, "America is becoming a country of old people" and the problem is we haven't figured out how to deal with them yet.
But she doesn't give up. As she says, "I'm an activist because the world isn't what I want it to be." Don't expect her to stop fighting any time soon.
See her video below or at this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/SagerSymposium#p/u/4/G89zXtIT58k
Amber begins by talking how absent LGBT aging is from conversation, both in the context of social justice and in terms of "queer issues". She makes an interesting point that aging is not considered an important political issue in the dialogue of change because aging is not look at as a "queer issue." The limits of identity politics for queer people means that when something that is not identified as queer becomes an issue, the activist community has problems figuring out how to fight for it, no matter how "profoundly impactful" they are.
In terms of what is seen as an LGBT issue, marriage is generally on the top of the list, whereas universal health care and aging often do not make the cut. Aging is looked at as the process of creating a dependent, less vital, less important community. Some people when thinking of LGBT elders have even said, "we don't have any of those".
But as America's baby boomer generation is getting old, the demographic of the country is going to change. In other words, there is about to be a huge constituency here that we are entirely unprepared for. And this is not just people in their 50s, but people in their 80s who currently are not even being considered. As Amber says, "America is becoming a country of old people" and the problem is we haven't figured out how to deal with them yet.
But she doesn't give up. As she says, "I'm an activist because the world isn't what I want it to be." Don't expect her to stop fighting any time soon.
A look into housing options for LGBT elders
I came across an interesting video today from In The Life TV which explored some of the current housing projects and plans underway for LGBT elders. The video was split into two parts. The first which interviews different lesbian women on growing up as Lesbian in very conservative, closed-minded communities. One woman Hilda Rush age 93s aid, "I don't feel that I can be my person here. I can't be who I am." Hilda and other women have experienced people who are openly hostile to lesbians. Ms. Rush recalls walking at night with the woman she was seeing at the time, wanting to hold hands, but knowing she can't. There is definitely a hint of fear in Hilda's voice and she said, "it's dangerous to let people know who you are" because of the propensity that they will be closed to the situation.
The second half of the video focused on some of the current projects. Joy Silver was featured to talk about Rainbow Vision located in Santa Fe. This project is the first and largest of its kind in the whole world. Rainbow vision is a project to build and finance condos, independent living rentals and assisted living all in one community. Silver expressed the importance that even the assisted living patients need to be integrated into a community.
The goal of Rainbow Vision is to give a family to people who are alone. One of the great stresses of aging as a member of the LGBT community is aging alone. Rainbow Vision seeks to combat this by providing a community that their residents can feel comfortable in and truly call home.
Currently there is a small growing number of LGBT aging communities. But the big problem? There aren't enough! and they are just not affordable. Very few companies offer good pension plans to LGBT members, and they have to live right up against what they have - money is very tight. One community, Triangle Square in Hollywood attempts to provide affordable housing to gay and lesbians. However, they only have 100 units available for a 6000 people waiting list!!!
The developers of these projects are faced with the great challenge of providing affordable housing for large numbers. Rainbow Vision appears to be a step in the right direction.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fs5zskgxXU
Sunday, November 21, 2010
A look at "Heaven's Coast" ~
I recently read a fascinating, moving and powerful text. Mark Doty's "Heaven's Coast" paints a real picture of the pains LGBT aging process, particularly in the struggle through illness. Doty's work is one of sheer elegance and grace, which uses the most careful selection of words to attempt to illustrate the love between himself and his partner of eight years, Wally. A story about loss and heartbreak, Doty uses meticulously crafted metaphors personalize his suffering and loss.
Wally is diagnosed to be HIV-positive by a Vermont social worker in May of 1989. From there, as his condition declines more and more, Doty uses words to cope with the reality that he will lose Wally.
But this is more than a text about loss. It is an attempt to humanize the reality of dealing with AIDS and homosexuality. Doty looks at the mere acronyms that attempt to distance us from AIDS, and personalizes all of them.
The text highlights the reality of the "taboo" that surrounds homosexuality. The idea is that if you walk in a room you can suddenly be infected by all of it - the AIDS, the HIV, the homosexuality. As an AIDS sufferer Amanda Heggs was quoted, “Sometimes I have a terrible feeling that I am dying not from the virus, but from being untouchable.”
As Wally ages, and his condition continues to become more and more grave, for Doty it becomes less about feeling like he needs to protect Wally from being poorly treated by nurses or technicians, and more about coping with the sheer magnitude of his inevitable loss.
Source: Heaven's Coast (book), Mark Doty
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