Things Have Changed

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit one of the community colleges in Denver (or more specifically one of its suburbs). I was surprised by many things I saw. First, the way the students seemed to be every where in the school was not new. It always has been that when you went into a college or university, the students are the people that make the institution run. They are the faces you see in the library, the business office, etc., because they are cheap, and want the place to do well.

The surprise of sorts was the sign in the middle of the hall by the cafeteria. It was for a meeting of the Rainbow Alliance, the schools LGBT group. Now, the sign was not on  the wall or door; it was a free standing sign sticking out out in the traffic. It could not be ignore.

There are two things I want to point out. The first was how much of a non-event the sign was. It was in peoples way as they walked down the hall, but, if they were not looking for the meeting, they walked around it. It was not an issue more than it was in the way.

The second thing was that the group felt safe putting the sign there. They did not feel there was any threat being so obvious. The meeting was trying to fly below the radar.

I have two responses to these observations. The first is a little bit of envy that things were not so open when I was in college. There was no LGBT group in my college back in the early 1970's, This is a good development.

Also. the group felt totally safe with their level of awareness. Not only did they have a sign in the middle of the hall, their fliers in the student information racks were very obvious compared to the others place there. As a group they felt safe with their level of notoriety.

I guess things are getting better.

Being Gay and Mature

When I was on the podcast, This Week in Gay, this Sunday, I started to talk about what it meant to be gay and older. Now first I want to say that I am 57, so I am not yet a member of the Social Security generation, but I was around when Stonewall occurred, I was sixteen then. At that time very few homosexuals were out with their identification. Now the "Movement" had started; the Mattachine Society had been created, but it was not even well known. Except for the big cities we were basically alone. SO you did not tell anyone.

Things have changed greatly since that time. When I am listening to the podcasts that I follow, I am amazed at the support many are receiving from their families. It did not happen to my generation; we did not have that support, and did not develop the trust to be universally out. There are very few of us totally in the closet, but there are also very few of us that are totally out of it. We are the in-between generation.

Now there is a second problem developing as we get older. As we getting older we are now getting more depended on other people for our daily lives. Not having the trust in others, many of us are afraid that we might not be able to get the help we need from others if we are totally open about our sexuality. Since many have had to break ties with their families, many are depended on strangers for their future care. They need to be careful how they present themselves, and are stuck further in the closet. We are returning to our youths in our old age.