SAGE Turns 40
SAGE, first known as 'Senior Action in a Gay Environment' and now simply by its acronym.
In 1978, the year SAGE was founded in New York City, the fight for LGBTQ civil rights was in its early days. Discrimination was rampant -- few could live out -- and marriage equality was barely a dream.
But a handful of forward-thinking LGBTQ people recognized that if being queer in 1970s America was fraught with difficulty and dangers, being older and queer in 1970s America was doubly so.
LGBTQ elders often lived invisible lives of poverty and isolation, forgotten even by members of their own community. SAGE changed that, increasing the quality of life for older LGBTQ people.
A year after its inception SAGE instituted the "Friendly Visitor" program, the first of its kind in the country, which paired volunteers with older LGBTQ people to ease their loneliness.
In 1984, the organization opened the country's only senior LGBTQ drop-in center and eight years later launched a network of affiliates (there are now locations in 20 states),
aimed at helping older queer people not just survive, but thrive.
It's all part of SAGE's core mission to improve the lives of older members of the LGBTQ community, a mission that's still succeeding 40 years after the organization's founding ...
SAGE website :
https://www.sageusa.org
Full story at:
https://losangeles.edgemedianetwork.com/news///260296/growing_older_and_stronger:_sage_turns_40