What a great way to kick off the week. A group of older gay men and women sat down to talk about their lives, their struggles, the things they’ve learned over the years, and the advice they’d like to offer gay youth of today.
Vlogger Davey Wavey and the LGBT Community Center of the Desert have teamed up to make this heartwarming video jam-packed with pearls of wisdom from half a dozen or so older gay folks. Our only criticism of the video is that it lacks much ethnic diversity, but other than that, there’s nothing we don’t love about it.
Check it out below.
bottom72
I like to thank the gay men and women that came before us and paved the way for our freedoms today.
Mack
As a gay senior citizen I would like to say, without the young gays we wouldn’t be where we are today. We’re celebrating marriage throughout most of the US. It took both the young and the old to do it. Now we have to move on to Equality for all in all phases of life.
bottom250
@Mack: Hugs thank you for your beautiful words.
o.codone
it takes a village i guess …
CCTR
Simple but great words of advice! Thanks!
robho3
That was such a great clip! So many of the younger LGBT kids today don’t realize how things were for us in the past. I think it is important that they know about the struggles and hardships we faced even just 20 years ago. I am 50 and things were just beginning to change when I came out in 1980 but I faced ridicule and harassment growing up. Kids today need to respect what the older generation has gone through. I have a friend who is in his 30’s and he asked me why all the gay Pride festivals are always held at the end of June and I had to explain to him all about Stonewall- he had no idea.
Tackle
This is why I don’t get/ understand these yong gay men going on YouTube crying and carrying on. Compared to what these brave gay men and lesbian women had to go through, and endure, there is no need for young gay men to go on YouTube, crying hysterically about coming out to papa, or boo hooing about some private school that does not agree with their life style. You have freedom to pick- up and go to a school that does not have such restrictions and dogma. And save money, or your parents can by enrolling in a school that’s gonna support, and allow you to be who you are…
Scribe38
@Tackle: Right because LGBTQ kids are not still being thrown out of the house for being gay, or beat daily by classmates, or murdered in the street. 0_o
Yeah things have gotten better, but LGBTQ children still face a lot of challenges. They still have the highest rate of suicide and abuse.
Mikah
Lovely.
jd2222248
so great to see senior gays giving back. Now, we need another video with diversity. 🙂
Tackle
@Scribe38: Right! Then let those kids who are being thrown out of the house, and beaten by classmates come forward, and post on YouTube. And those who have been murdered, let their family, love ones, and close friends come forward and post on YouTube as well. The ones I have seen posting these past couple of weeks are not addressing gay teens being thrown out. Beaten up at school, or being murdered. It’s all about them, and their current so- called plight. With them even admitting, aspirations to be models, actors, public speakers and authors. You can fall for their B.S. But I sure in the hell wont…
GayEGO
Excellent video clip! I agree with all of their advice. I am a senior of 73 years old, I have a lifetime partner of 53 years, we have been married 11 years in June, we live in Massachusetts, I am a Navy Veteran, a retired software engineer, and we are living the American dream.
Boring, eh?
My advice is to educate people that we are born the way we are and we live like everyone else. I did so by inviting all of my friends, LGBTs and straights to our home for dinners, cookouts, holiday parties etc. so they could see how we lived.
I was born and raised in Idaho as a Mormon and I left the church when I disagreed with some of their teachings but there was one I remember well. God gave us a brain and expects us to use it. I found so many people who were not Mormons were wonderful and there was no way that they had to be Mormons.
I never talked to working or military peers about my private life but later on I got some verification that my efforts did some good. A straight fellow I worked with brought his brother over to visit. Later he told me he did that because he wanted to show his brother that my partner and I lived a good life like they did, because his brother had a gay son. The last company I worked for acknowleged that I had a partner, which was a shock to me. They also gave my partner and me a wedding party when we got married.
Thanks to the younger generation for stepping up to the plate and supporting us.
DonW
@GayEGO: Thanks back to you and your generation for your bravery. We are standing on the shoulders of giants!
Suburban
That was emotional to watch. These men and women had to go thru things the younger generation never will. I do know of man who a realtor refused to show him a house because he was with his partner so things like that still happen. The world has changed much more than I have expected but there is still discrimination out there.
orcanyc
Thanks Davey, wonderful and important.