With that in mind, it gives me great pleasure to add Michael Adams, executive director of SAGE, to our list of Q&A conversations. Michael runs the “the world's oldest and largest non-profit agency dedicated to serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender senior citizens.”

SAGE’s mission is summed up in its name: Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders. In the past thirty years of its existence, the organization has been responsible for many firsts that support this mission:

• The nation's first Friendly Visiting program for homebound and frail GLBT elders
• The nation's first GLBT Senior Drop-In Center
• The country's first support group for GLBT seniors with HIV
• The first national conferences devoted to GLBT aging concerns
• The nation's first program dedicated to caregiving services for GLBT seniors

The organization is increasingly recognized as a leader on aging and retirement issues in our community. We recently asked Michael for some “SAGE advice” on these issues and his viewpoints on several trends in the marketplace. Our Q&A follows below.

Ben Finzel: SAGE will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2008. That means you were founded in 1978, before AIDS and the devastation wrought on our community (and many others) by that disease. How do you think our community's experience of aging has been informed by the experience of losing an entire generation to AIDS?

Michael Adams: There is no way to overestimate the impact of AIDS on the GLBT community’s experience of aging. For years, gay men didn’t have any reason to believe they would ever get old, and tragically many of us didn’t. Our community was too busy struggling to stay alive and care for those who were dying to worry about “far off” things like getting old. We lost not only a whole generation of friends and loved ones, but years of preparation for our future as older people. And the most senior members of our community – who were already destined to struggle in their old age because of the early loss of nuclear family members to homophobia – then watched the later loss of their gay “family” to AIDS. Today, of course, the situation is different. Thankfully, SAGE is now working with scores of GLBT seniors who are living with AIDS rather than dying from it. The impact is still huge, but it’s different and nowhere near as devastating.

Ben Finzel: I've written a bit in the past about what I call the "purple elephant" in the room referring to the question of aging in our community. In my experience, aging is one issue that we just don't want to acknowledge, even though a huge subset of our community is now part of the growing "gayby boom" generation now facing retirement and major life changes. How have you succeeded in communicating your mission of fostering a greater understanding of aging to our community when many of us don't seem to want to listen?

Michael Adams: Well, we still have a long way to go in communicating SAGE’s mission that aging is a part of life to be embraced, and that our later years can be just as exciting – if not more so – than what came before. GLBT Americans are probably no different from Americans in general – there is a certain fascination with youth and a fear of getting older. Still, we know we’re making progress. The fact is most of us think about getting older, and even plan for it. That’s what retirement accounts are all about. And a lot of us have become pretty accustomed to putting something away (or at least worrying about it we don’t). And while, sadly, we can all tell the stories of GLBT older people being shunned in bars and other community spaces, at SAGE we are fortunate because we can also get to witness a different story every day. That’s the story of the many young people from the GLBT community who step forward to volunteer and support our elder pioneers. So there’s a lot of promise mixed in with the challenges.

Ben Finzel: What do you think of the growing "50+ resort retirement" communities now being discussed and/or developed in many areas of the country? What challenges do you think the industry will face as it grows? What other options are there (or should there be) for 50+ GLBT people to consider as they age?

Michael Adams: At SAGE, we’re clear that the so-called resort communities for GLBT older people are a good thing because they’re an important new option for some people. But for the obvious reason – i.e. money – they’re only an option for some. And of course not every GLBT older person wants to live in a GLBT enclave – luxury or not. Fortunately, more and more options are emerging. Triangle Square in Los Angeles just became the first low-income GLBT senior housing complex in the country. There are GLBT senior developments of various stripes popping up around the country. And at least as important – we’re starting to see some “mainstream” interest in the housing needs of GLBT older people. SAGE is trying to encourage that with a new on-line program – launching this spring – that will provide criteria for what an GLBT-friendly retirement community looks like, and give retirement developments the opportunity to show GLBT older folks how they stack up against that criteria. For SAGE, it’s all about creating as many options as possible for so GLBT older people have a full range of choices.

Ben Finzel: What tips do you have for communicators, marketers and others who are trying to reach the 50+ GLBT community? What communications lessons have you learned in nearly 30 years as the leading social services agency focused on meeting the needs of senior GLBT people?

Michael Adams: Probably the most important tip is to recognize that the 50+ GLBT community is a huge and very varied audience. The interests and needs of GLBT’s in their 50s and 60s often are quite different from those in their 70s and 80s. And there are differences across income, gender, and other lines. So there’s no one GLBT consumer. At the same time, while GLBT older people face some unique challenges, many of their concerns are not that different from other older people – income security in retirement, housing, finding new says to live vibrant lives, friendly care and support in the later years, etc. But unfortunately, their options are often more limited. Offering new solutions on those “bread and butter” issues for GLBT older people is where a lot of the action is at.

Ben Finzel: Thank you Michael for sharing your insight and perspective with us. I hope you’ll keep in touch with us as you get ready to launch your new online program/criteria – we’d love to have you back on the Out Front Blog to talk about the program when it launches next spring.

Ben Finzel