50 Is Not Old!

I suppose I’m airing my personal baggage here, but 50 is not old! Don’t get me wrong. I think the idea of having a gay retirement center is awesome, and I REALLY like the idea of “scantily clad go-go boys” running around the room.

I just can’t quite get my head around that one statement... “RainbowVision is your typical ‘after 50’ kind of place... There is a social director, a dining facility and residents who range in age from 50 to 94.”

The problem is, I can’t imagine myself moving to a retirement home (read, nursing home), at the age of 50 and being around people in their 80’s and 90’s. Of course, I suppose that’s insensitive. There are people who are in their 50’s with debilitating illnesses, and for those people, a place like this would be a blessing.

I carry too much baggage I think. The gay oriented nursing home is a good thing because we just haven’t gotten to the point of acceptance yet. Actually, I don’t know if we will ever get to a point of having a gay pride parade at a straight-oriented nursing home. But one thing is for certain - people shouldn’t have to spend their late years worrying about other people who don’t have their crap together when it comes to acceptance and tolerance.

Joy Silver had never seen a nursing home quite like it: There was pulsating music, a spinning disco ball and, yes, even scantily clad go-go boys.

“I said to myself, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want. I want that party when I get to be that age,’” Silver would say many years later when remembering the nursing home in New York’s West Village.

Today, Silver is working to create just that kind of retirement facility--not only for herself but also for hundreds of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people who eventually will move into a soon-to-open community dubbed RainbowVision on the outskirts of Santa Fe.

In many regards, RainbowVision is your typical “after 50” kind of place. It has a mixture of independent-living units, assisted-living units and state-of-the-art medical care for the extremely aged and infirm. There is a social director, a dining facility and residents who range in age from 50 to 94. And the community has been built in the kind of beautiful setting -- on the edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains -- that makes a lifetime of saving for retirement seem well worthwhile. [...]

But the 146-unit facility is also unique. It is marketed specifically to gay retirees and elderly as a place to spend the remainder of their lives among people who will not judge them for their lifestyles or life partners. It not only will have gourmet cooking classes, but also rowdy drag queen shows and gay pride parades. And it is seen less as a place to quietly savor the golden years than a place to boisterously savor the very way of life that many of the residents have spent decades fighting to have society see as acceptable. (source)