LGBTQ+ Older Adults Find Safe Spaces at Senior Centers

Some LGBTQ+ programs are offered through centers and organizations that specifically focus on LGBTQ+ older adults, such as SAGE, based in New York City. SAGE not only runs its own centers and support programs for housing, meals, legal and financial issues, health and wellness, but also offers training and help with LGBTQ+ programming to senior centers around the country. Some LGBTQ+ programs are initiated by centers, while others are organized by community members but based at the senior center. Some states are experimenting with different models of how to provide programs. In Connecticut, for example, the LGBTQ+ Moveable Senior Center offers training, programs and activities at 25 centers throughout the state.

At some centers, LGBTQ+ programming has been a way for people to discover other activities at the center.

“I think it’s opening the doors because we’re so welcoming here,” says Dianne Kane, director of the center in Yarmouth.

“I think [LGBTQ+ programming is] opening the doors because we’re so welcoming here,” says Dianne Kane, director of the center in Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

Tony Luong

Here are five examples of how older adult organizations are integrating LGBTQ+ activities into their programs.

Yarmouth LGBTQ Older Adult Social Group

Yarmouth LGBTQ Older Adult Social Group meets monthly for meals and programs at the Yarmouth center and draws 15 to 30 people a month, says Marie Seufert.

Tony Luong

Marie Seufert, 76, had been involved with LGBTQ+ groups at other centers when she started the Yarmouth social group in 2023. It meets monthly for meals and programs at the Yarmouth center and draws 15 to 30 people a month, she says. Seufert, a Yarmouth resident, says the social group gets space and support from the center for publicity, but has its own board and raises its own funding for activities and food through donations and grants. The group is a place where Seufert feels she can be her real self. “When you’re just with each other, socializing, and being together, and going on trips together, and doing those things, you’re totally free,” she says.

LGBTQ+ Moveable Senior Center

This program was created by Connecticut Community Care, a nonprofit care management organization that has several initiatives to improve the lives of older adults. The Moveable program started with about eight centers and programming at different sites, such as a Legislative Lunch and Learn focused on LGBTQ+ rights. Now, the program reaches more than two dozen sites throughout the state that plan their own programming. In addition to training, there are various programs. “We’ve had several successful movie nights or movie lunches where we’ve shown a movie that we thought would be of interest and then had sort of a guided, facilitated discussion afterwards over a meal,” says Karen Green, operations and network coordinator at Connecticut Community Care.

St. Louis Area Agency on Aging

St. Louis Area Agency on Aging collaborates with organizations such as SAGE on training but also shares information with organizations throughout Missouri.

Courtesy St. Louis Area Agency on Aging

When Anneliese Stoever was hired by St. Louis in 2005, there was no programming for LGBTQ+ older adults. Since then, the agency’s efforts have included collaborating with organizations such as SAGE on training but also sharing information with organizations throughout the state. Stoever has learned that if an LGBTQ+ person needs resources, she needs to connect them with a known affirming and welcoming space, she says. One center, for example, started a group for people with grandchildren who identified as LGBTQ+. “[The director] said that that became a welcoming and safe space for those grandparents to support each other,” says Stoever. The director also found the support group encouraged other LGBTQ+ older adults to consider the center a safe space, she says.

Center in the Park’s Pride in the Park

Center in the Park’s programming includes the Pride in the Park fair and connecting LGBTQ+ residents with local resources.

Courtesy Center in the Park

This nonprofit center in northwest Philadelphia serves people 55-plus with programs ranging from diabetes management to pottery and Spanish language classes, says director Cleo Smalls. Center in the Park’s staff has gone through SAGE training. A collaboration with the local LGBT Elder Initiative has morphed into other events, including the annual Pride in the Park fair and connecting LGBTQ+ residents with local resources. Last summer, the center ran an LGBTQ+ book club and hosts a film series – Fifth Friday Films With Pride. Smalls has some advice for other senior centers that want to welcome a diverse clientele: “I would say, also, just outreach for any diversity, just making sure your staff and your board represents the population that you’re trying to attract.”

Outstanding Life

Outstanding Life grew out of efforts in Boston during the pandemic to lessen isolation in the LGBTQ+ community, says David Aronstein, a board member and founder.

Tony Luong

This online resource for LGBTQ+ older adults grew out of efforts in Boston during the pandemic to lessen isolation in the community, says David Aronstein, a board member and founder. “Elders have always been at risk for feeling lonely and being isolated. That’s particularly more prevalent I think in LGBTQ older folks because not everybody has children or they may be estranged from their family,” he says.  Outstandinglife.org offers virtual programming such as legal seminars, caregiver support and monthly game and social nights. Membership and events are free, says Aronstein. “There’s no one size fits all,” Aronstein says, noting some people don’t have a computer. “We’re working to expand our reach and to reach more elders and to kind of … make LGBT programming a regular part of senior centers’ activities.”