IT's no surprise that older LGBT adults have kept their sexual preferences in the closet most of their lives. Being gay was not even discussed let alone accepted and if you were gay, you were shunned -- living your life behind a brick wall with nowhere and no one to tell; living your whole life thinking something was wrong with you as if you had an incurable disease.
And now, whether it was STONEWALL that pushed everyone out of the closet, older adults in their late 60's and 70's even 80's and 90's are still coming out. It's not easy accepting liberation and freedom when you have been hiding for so long so of course, coming out in your older years coupled with "normative" age related challenges is not easy. We have to understand that these older adults are breaking the "traditional" barriers of their time and entering a world that will finally accept them--it's like being born again.
It's certainly not uncommon to see older couples of the same sex holding hands or smooching on a park bench batting eyes interchangeably--finally, freely and lovingly. But the honey moon of freshly coming out later in life doesn't last long (although we wish it could)...unless you know about organizations like SAGE--Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders which came out in 1978 (11 years after Stonewall) providing services, resources and opportunities to this unique population. To know this organization is to know that your rights and needs will be addressed, protected and met.
Check here: http://sageusa.org/uploads/SagePB_AmericanAct_web.pdf to see some of their progressions. It's inspiring to see an organization come together to make change.
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