Gay Retirement

Chiron Rising is a website and magazine for mature gay men.

As I pass White Crane to Bo Young, continuing my path as a gay community service provider a slightly different direction (a direction time is forcing me to look anyway), I'm thinking about "gay retirement." Oh, not retiring from being gay, of course, but retiring from work and career and identity of adult life, something all of us will do eventually. Out gay men are beginning to reach retirement age. Some of us are finding ways to "retire" early, understanding--perhaps with specifically gay perspective--that work and career is only a small part of experience and that we need time in our lives for adventures, for travel, for contribution, for volunteerism, and for finding alternative ways of living. We're going to be needing to structure our lives so we are surrounded with friends and compatriots and access to gay "assisted living facilities" sometime in the future. Who'd want to have to go into a "straight" nursing home? We need new models for such services for ourselves. I came out of the Northern Californian gay counterculture of the 1970s. Born two days before Hiroshima, I'm part of the very beginnings of the Babyboom Generation and lived in California all through the 70s. In those days we dreamed of retiring someday--"after the revolution"--with hippie friends to utopian colonies in the woods. Thirty years later many of those friends have died. And we've all moved on from being hippies. But the utopian dreams still live on. The Radical Faeries have established a style of utopian community and sanctuary in several locations in the U.S. Some of us may "retire" to such sanctuaries. Some of us may be looking for more "upscale" versions. (There's a project, for instance, announced on the Internet at www.ourtownvillages.com, to create gay and lesbian rural and urban "villages.") There's a project for a sort of upscale retirement/skilled nursing care facility north of San Francisco called Fountaingrove Lodge. And an "urban condominium community for older gay men lesbians, and their friends" in the Fenway/Audubon Circle neighborhood of Boston expected to statr construction in 2007. Check out www.stonewallcommunities.com In Santa Fe, NM, there is a beautiful and extensive facility being built called RainbowVision. It's being developed along the "country club" or "resort" model for a retirement community. There are various levels of participation and financial investment. And a second facility is being developed in Palm Springs, CA. Also in Palm Springs is a new project called Liberty operated by Beau Monde Management. Very upscale, it's described as "Gay owned and operated, Liberty will feature 156 architecturally-significant homes in a gated community in the heart of Central Palm Springs. Only blocks away from the downtown area and across the street from upscale shopping and theaters. Inside the gates, a large clubhouse and a host of amenities, including full concierge services, home health care options, travel clubs, pet sitting services, personal trainers, and many more. Prices for Liberty begin in the low $700s for Phase 1. Rainbow Vista is a gay-owned and operated complex for gay seniors in Gresham, OR, a suburb of Portland. Their studio aprtment rate (including food and utilities and access to all their services) runs about $1450 a month. Their website shows many pictures, including a lovely view of Mt Hood. The city of Portland is easily accessible. In the planning stages is The Lambda Retirement Community of Austin, Texas (LRC) is conceived as a living center designed to help men lead productive, satisfied lives as they prepare for and enter retirement. "Diversity is valued in terms of race, creed, social affiliation and work backgrounds. The LRC will be known for its productive, happy and relaxing environment wherein the different skills of individual members are tapped for the benefit of all. The LRC will be both creative and efficient in providing private personal living space for men but that will also capitalize on the efficiencies of group living with common facilities for meetings, eating, recreation, physical fitness, telecommunications, and other facilities. The LRC will create conditions for optimum physical and mental health using both traditional and non-traditional medicine and health providers. Marigold Creek is a resort-style gay retirement community located in Surprise, Arizona. The GLBT retirement resort offers all the amenities for active adult living in the sun. Single family, patio home and condo floor plans available. Tony Branch, a gay realtor, writes about retiring to Florida. "St. Petersburg, Florida with a focus on serving the needs of the large and diverse senior gay community.  Given the decrease in housing prices during the past two years, there are some amazingly good opportunities now ranging from beach cottages to over-55 condo communities with very gay friendly (though not exclusively gay except for one).  The beaches in this area are sandy, white, and warm.  A moderate cost of living make this area one folks should consider especially if they like warm weather and the beach but in area in which all kinds of cultural and other urban amenities abound." www.gayseniorstpete.com ------- Some of us, myself among them, learned a vision of alternative living in monastic life. I wonder if we could somehow form "freelance monasteries," keeping the best parts of common life--eco-simplicity and camaraderie --without the religious and authoritarian (and anti-sexual) structures. I wrote about such a "freelance monastery" in my never-published novel AWAKENING (which is available free for download). And in GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE (a description of the fictional Clear Light Colony in Perspective, CO is linked to the book title.) Easton Mountain Retreat Center outside Albany NY is forming an intentional community which nicely fits my hypothetical freelance monastery model. They've abandoned the monastery as a model, but still following through with the community as centered around a retreat center and gay summer resort. I would be interested in hearing from other men beginning to think about and plan how to adapt their own dreams to today's--and tomorrow's--world. ------- There's a fairly extensive site now at GayRetirementGuide.com This site provides links to existing (and proposed) gay retirement opportunities in Canada, Central America, Europe, and the US (Arizona, California, D.C., Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oho, Oregon, and Texas). And there's a good site at GayGray.com It has links and ads and discussions of topics of interest to older gay men, including listings of bars in which an older crowd is welcome. In the past months that this article has been posted, I've had inquires about how I'm coming with the idea. Click here to get a list of others who've written along with a brief description of their visions.   Toby Johnson is author of GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe (Alyson, 2003)