Old Queen!

You'd think that a title of royalty might be a compliment to a gay man, but "old queen" is one of the ugliest names you can call someone in the gay community.

Revering The Elderly
Marilyn told me about a heartbreaking, but fascinating article in the New York Times yesterday about the treatment of gays and lesbians in nursing homes. Particular thanks to Jane Gross and Dan Frosch for putting together such a sympathic view of this special population.

It has never been a subject I've wanted to think about too much...getting old...and this article made me think about it a lot.

I have no children, and while I've treated my nieces and nephews fine over the years, they would certainly feel little or no obligation to help me if I needed it in my later years. I've tried to keep myself healthy enough, so that I'll be able to maintain independence from others' help for as long as possible, but that can never be guaranteed. Trying to make sure I have options as an elder in my current planning leaves me with trying to make sure I have sufficient financial resources to ensure I'm treated with dignity, and to also cultivate friendship with others in the LGBT community to make sure I have some means of social support.

I often rail with a quixotic fervor against issues that have very little chance of being solved, but I truly wish that overall, we would begin to revere our elders, rather than have disdain for them. Both in the gay community as well as with our non-gay brothers and sisters. A man can dream, cant he?

Current Knitting/Crocheting
I finished another three stars (which is extremely good for mid-week crocheting).



With 52 stars completed and 88 more to go, I'm still feeling as if there is a possibility I will finish this mammoth task. Of course, I also have the little filler stars to work on, but they don't take that much time.

Current Reading
I'm still on my binge of Patricia Highsmith writings. God, I'm sorry she's dead. I'm on my last book of hers.



A Game For The Living is a wonderful, much cheerier book of Ms. Highsmiths, and probably one of my favorites yet. It incorporates her writing style, aspects of her personal wanderlust and a vicarious look into a time in foreign lands that used to be.