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Opening doors
• GUS Van Sant’s film Milk was released on Friday, a portrayal of Harvey Milk, gay rights activist and California’s first openly gay elected official who was assassinated a year after getting into office in 1978.
He was working at a time when prejudice and violence against gay men and women was openly accepted as the norm. Much has changed since then, although there is still some way to go. But we need to consider what life was like for gay men and lesbians in the 1970s, the 1960s, and the 1950s, and what life is like for them now that they are older people.
Growing up at a time when homosexuality was illegal, where if you were gay it was considered a mental illness, and abuse was routine, means that the issues faced by older gay men and lesbians are very different from those faced by younger gay people today.
Older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people are more likely to be isolated, two-and-a-half times as likely to live alone, twice as likely to be single, and four-and-a-half times as likely to have no children to call upon in times of need.
Age Concern’s Opening Doors Project is one of the only services dedicated solely to older LGBT people in central London. We provide befriending, social activities, support and much more, to reduce isolation and improve the social wellbeing of older LGBT people.
To find out more about the Opening Doors Project, please contact us on 020 7121 3331 (women) or 020 7239 0419 (men)
NICK MAXWELL and DEBBIE NEILL
LGBT Project Co-ordinators Opening Doors Project
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