SAGE Partners With NPR's Storycorps

Via press release:

SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) and the renowned oral history organization, StoryCorps, are proud to announce a new partnership that will help identify stories from LGBT older people around the country for StoryCorps’ “OutLoud” initiative, which is dedicated to recording, preserving, and sharing LGBTQ stories from across America. StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. Over the past decade, StoryCorps has collected more than 50,000 interviews, archiving these recordings at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and broadcasting selections on NPR. Over the next year, SAGE and its local affiliates around the country will work with StoryCorps to record stories at their locations in Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco, as well as through a traveling “MobileBooth” that will visit towns and cities in Alabama, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

SAGE just completed a daylong taping at their NYC location.

At The 2012 Toys Party In Chelsea

Above is the ten-foot-high mountain of toys I encountered at last night's Toys Party, the 27th annual holiday event at Chelsea Piers which raises money for SAGE (Services & Advocacy for Gay Elders).  The event always sells out and the well-dressed crowd of over 2300 was already in a  block-long line when I arrived.  I didn't get a lot of photos as my loyal photographer Dr. Jeff was unable to attend, but below you'll find some shots of JMG readers, uberblogger Andy Towle, NYC Council candidate Corey Johnson, radio host Michelangelo Signorile, nightlife photographer Gustavo Monroy, GLAAD's Rich Ferraro, blogger Kenneth Walsh, and hilarious comedian Robynne Kaamil.  Mayor Bloomberg reportedly spoke to the crowd, but I must have been somewhere else in the giant complex. I don't think I've ever been at such an enormous gay party where most of the crowd didn't have their shirts off.  The toys are donated to the USMC's Toys For Tots program.

UPDATE: The final shot above (that I'm in) is from the event's digital photo booth. Hundreds of more booth photos can be viewed here.

UPDATE II: The embedded slideshow seems to be slowing the page load today, so I've removed it. See the full-screen photos here.

CORRECTION: Although I'm pretty sure I heard the party's announcer say "Toys For Tots," which is a USMC program, I've been corrected as to the destination of the toys. They will go to: "The 9th Police Precinct Community Council, Ali Forney Center, Brooklyn ACE Integration Head Start, God’s Love We Deliver, Grace Baptist/Faith Mission, St. Ann’s Episcopal Church of the Bronx, St. Francis Desales Church of Rockaway NY, UWS Jericho Project/Brick Church, and Youth 4 Seniors/Harlem InterAgency Council."

December 2nd: NYC Toys Party

Even though the room capacity is over 2000, this event sells out instantaneously every year. Which is why I've never been.

In The Life On Safe Spaces For America's Gay Seniors

In The Life looks into the state of being old and gay in modern America. Where do you see yourself spending your golden years?

According to The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, over 3 million LBGT people are over age 65. While seniors are protected against age-based discrimination by The Older Americans Act, the lack of LGBT specific protections can drive our pioneers back into the closet when entering long-term care facilities. Disturbed by this trend, some activists and visionaries have taken matters into their own hands by creating safe spaces for our elders.

Gay Seniors Program Gets Federal Grant

The Chicago chapter of SAGE has been awarded $475K for program services by the federal government.

The program, Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders, or SAGE, is part of the Center on Halsted, a gay and lesbian community center in Lakeview, and was profiled by the Tribune last June. Its director, Serena Worthington, said the $475,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services marks only the third time that federal money has gone to a program focusing on GLBT seniors. "It's an affirmation of the work the center does for people of all ages, and especially for seniors," Worthington said. "The projects it funds will be designed to enhance the lives of seniors here and, hopefully, across the country." Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., announced the award Tuesday at the Center on Halsted. The grant was part of Quigley's appropriations request for the 2010 fiscal year.

The money will be used for computer equipment, a study of HIV-related cognitive dysfunction in gay seniors, and to produce an HIV awareness film.

Gay Seniors Face Loneliness, Unique Health Challenges

From Newsweek:

Gerontologists haven't traditionally viewed sexual orientation as relevant to their work—and, according to a study by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, most national health surveys of elderly citizens fail to assess sexual orientation. But gay seniors confront unique challenges: they're twice as likely as straights to live alone, and 10 times less likely to have a caretaker should they fall ill. Older gay men are at high risk for HIV, and many suffer the psychological effects of losing friends to the AIDS crisis.

Many face discrimination in medical and social services, and on top of it all, they're less likely to have health insurance: one survey, by the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law, at UCLA, estimates that gay seniors are half as likely to have coverage as their straight counterparts.

"In many ways, this population is a mirror opposite of what the mainstream aging community looks like," says Karen Taylor, director of advocacy and training for the New York-based Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders, or SAGE, the nation's oldest senior network. "The average senior in the United States lives with one other person; two-thirds of LGBT seniors live alone. If you don't have those informal support networks built into your life, then everything else becomes a bigger issue. Who forces you to go to the doctor? What happens if you fall?"

This is the 30th year of SAGE (Services and Advocacy for Gay Elders) and this month the organization launches a major awareness campaign in New York City with messages hitting subways, phone booths, and buses. The campaign will advise on the many SAGE services available to LGBT seniors and will solicit financial support. The ads are really great (see right), go to the above link for more examples.

October 12-14 SAGE will hold its 4th annual National Conference On LGBT Aging at the New York Marriott. The conference will culminate with the 30th Annual Gala and SAGE Awards at the Metropolitan Pavilion in the West Village. Honorees include Martina Navratilova, tickets available here.

RELATED: Earlier this month, Gotham businessman Eyal Feldman, 30, the owner of Boy Butter lube, did a six mile solo marathon swim across the St. Lawrence River to Canada and back, raising $1000 for SAGE. Check out the video of his achievement, Feldman sets a great example.

June 1970: The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March

Richard Davis at the NYC Gay & Lesbian Community Center sends us this wonderful clip about the very first gay pride march in June 1970: The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March. Watch members of SAGE reminisce. It's lovely. Watch the entire show here. Tomorrow night the SAGE members featured in this clip will appear on a panel to discuss their experience.

If you'd like to join up with our posse of JMG readers and pals at this year's march, we'll be congregating on the southwest corner of Christopher and Gay in the West Village - the gayest corner of the gayest street on the gayest day of the year. We may just explode in a fireball of glitter and rainbows.

Longtime Pozzers Face Senior Years With Lengthy List Of Debilitating Illnesses

As more people living with HIV/AIDS move into their senior years, the toll of the medications and unforeseen damage from the virus is beginning to surface. Today the New York Times has published a grim article depicting life for some long-term AIDS survivors. This should be required reading for young gay men who think that seroconverting merely means a lifetime of taking a pill every morning.

CHICAGO — John Holloway received a diagnosis of AIDS nearly two decades ago, when the disease was a speedy death sentence and treatment a distant dream.

Yet at 59 he is alive, thanks to a cocktail of drugs that changed the course of an epidemic. But with longevity has come a host of unexpected medical conditions, which challenge the prevailing view of AIDS as a manageable, chronic disease.

Mr. Holloway, who lives in a housing complex designed for the frail elderly, suffers from complex health problems usually associated with advanced age: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, kidney failure, a bleeding ulcer, severe depression, rectal cancer and the lingering effects of a broken hip.

Those illnesses, more severe than his 84-year-old father’s, are not what Mr. Holloway expected when lifesaving antiretroviral drugs became the standard of care in the mid-1990s.

The drugs gave Mr. Holloway back his future.

But at what cost?

Very little research has been done into the long-term effects of the virus and the medications.

There have been only small, inconclusive studies on the causes of aging-related health problems among AIDS patients.

Without definitive research, which has just begun, that second wave of suffering could be a coincidence, although it is hard to find anyone who thinks so.

Instead, experts are coming to believe that the immune system and organs of long-term survivors took an irreversible beating before the advent of lifesaving drugs and that those very drugs then produced additional complications because of their toxicity — a one-two punch.

“The sum total of illnesses can become overwhelming,” said Charles A. Emlet, an associate professor at the University of Washington at Tacoma and a leading H.I.V. and aging researcher, who sees new collaborations between specialists that will improve care.

“AIDS is a very serious disease, but longtime survivors have come to grips with it,” Dr. Emlet continued, explaining that while some patients experienced unpleasant side effects from the antiretrovirals, a vast majority found a cocktail they could tolerate. “Then all of a sudden they are bombarded with a whole new round of insults, which complicate their medical regime and have the potential of being life threatening. That undermines their sense of stability and makes it much more difficult to adjust.”

Larry Kramer speaks about HIV meds: “How long will the human body be able to tolerate that constant bombardment? Well, we are now seeing that many bodies can’t. Once again, just as we thought we were out of the woods, sort of, we have good reason again to be really scared.”

RELATED: Jane Gross, author of the above-linked article, also wrote the excellent NY Times article on senior gays. Visit SAGE, Services and Advocacy for Senior Gays, for more information. For information about older adults with HIV, visit the AIDS Community Research Initiative Of America.

$500K Grant For LGBT Senior Advocacy

SAGE (Service and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force have received a $500,00 grant from the Arcus Gay & Lesbian Fund to support advocacy for LGBT seniors.

"As the one organization that focuses on the full gamut of LGBT aging issues both locally and nationally, SAGE is thrilled to partner with the Task Force on this national effort to improve the lives of the senior members of our community," said SAGE Executive Director Michael Adams. "This initiative serves a critical need: in the next 20 years the number of LGBT people age 65 and above will grow by 70 percent - from approximately 3 million now to roughly 5 million over the next quarter century. This demographic tidal wave, combined with the endemic invisibility, marginalization, and discrimination faced by LGBT older people, lends an added urgency to this first-of-a-kind national advocacy effort. Thanks to this funding from Arcus, we will be able to launch a strategic and focused effort to increase visibility, awareness, policy protections and support for LGBT older people." Adams added that the new initiative is especially timely since SAGE is celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2008, just launched an on-line community of LGBT aging advocates and service providers nationwide, and plans on hosting its fourth national conference on LGBT aging next fall.

"We are grateful to the Arcus Foundation for funding this innovative partnership between the Task Force and SAGE," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "This project will combine the Task Force's federal policy and research expertise, SAGE's unparalleled understanding of the needs of LGBT elders, and the energy of activists across the nation to shape a better future for all our seniors."

Learn more about SAGE here.

Growing Movement For Gay Seniors

A front-page story in today's NY Times discusses the growing support movement for elderly LGBT Americans.

Even now, at 81 and with her memory beginning to fade, Gloria Donadello recalls her painful brush with bigotry at an assisted-living center in Santa Fe, N.M. Sitting with those she considered friends, “people were laughing and making certain kinds of comments, and I told them, ‘Please don’t do that, because I’m gay.’”

Jalna Perry of Boston said her guard was always up in nursing homes. The result of her outspokenness, Ms. Donadello said, was swift and merciless. “Everyone looked horrified,” she said. No longer included in conversation or welcome at meals, she plunged into depression. Medication did not help. With her emotional health deteriorating, Ms. Donadello moved into an adult community nearby that caters to gay men and lesbians.

“I felt like I was a pariah,” she said, settled in her new home. “For me, it was a choice between life and death.”

There are an estimated 2.4 million elderly LGBT people in America, most of whom are forced back into the closet when they enter nursing care, living the last days of their lives in unimaginable loneliness. The Times article goes on to discuss the isolation and dangers that elderly gays face, but speaks optimistically about the gay-specific nursing home/assisted care facilities that are opening around the country. One of the programs mentioned was created by SAGE, Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders. Visit the SAGE site to learn more.