The beginning of a new era

So here it is....December 21st, 2012...and the world hasn't ended yet.  Guess that means we are beginning a new era!  I'm sitting here by the pool in Hoi An Vietnam.  Just had a lovely massage and while lying there getting a rub down, decided this vacation provided a great opportunity to get busy with my latest passion, finding a way to become an advocate for LGBT senior housing.  I've been playing around with some ideas in this regard for almost a year.  I've developed some thoughts, plans and even a proposal to forward this work.  I've shared these ideas with a handful of people involved with LGBT senior issues and have gotten positive response but need a larger network if this baby is going to get off the ground.

So, since the world doesn't seem to be ending.......let's get to it!

First, I should "out" my motivation for this work:  I'm getting old!  I just turned 60 and feel like this has been a major milestone.  Retirement is in the near future (scary enough) and a recent health episode brought me to my senses.  I'm not a young, active, workaholic lesbian anymore!  My partner, Jane, is seven years my senior.  We have a great and relatively easy and peaceful life with a few aches and pains, but we are NOT who our mothers were at 60!  What will happen to us if one or both of us need assistance and we can't live in our home anymore.  Where will we go?  Will there be a senior housing facility where we can live and be who we are now, a lesbian couple accustomed to behaving as a lesbian couple as we do everyday in our own home?

There are so many LGBT seniors who have been living our lives out of the closet for so many years, I can't imagine senior housing facilities are unaware of this impending market.  Other than a few LGBT-specified senior housing, the rest of the facilities either don't see it coming, don't want to acknowledge us or are just plain clueless!  Hello????  We're here, we're queer, and we coming your way!

Is anybody listening???

This is the beginning of a new era!