Doug PollardGoing Over the Rainbow (LINK)
July 22nd 2008 01:43
Which witch is bitch?
Who wants to live in a gay retirement village?
After several years of knockbacks by various councils, Melbourne developer Peter Dickson has finally got approval to build a gay and lesbian retirement village in Ballan, a small country town an hour and a half’s drive from the city.
Ballan is a short drive from Daylesford, which already has a thriving gay community. The Daylesford ChillOut Festival (of which I just happen to be Secretary) is the most successful GLBTIQ festival in rural Australia (studies indicate it brings in up to $25m of business to the shire every year).
The strong gay presence means there is also strong resistance. An attempt to build the facility in Daylesford foundered when the landowner discovered what Dickson wanted the land for!
And Daylesford – which markets itself heavily as a tourist destination – is expensive: a cup of coffee there costs three times what it does in Ballan.
But . . . do I really want to live in a community of elderly fags and dykes? I’ve never liked living in a gay ghetto (tried it – hated the hothouse atmosphere). And I like living surrounded by people of all ages.
I can’t help thinking of a gay retirement home as a residential version of the gay bars I know that cater to an older clientele – the so-called “wrinkle rooms” – and shuddering!!
It would certainly kill off any remaining sex drive. I don’t know which I find less appealing: the gay man who cheerfully grows old, complete with grey hair, flab and wrinkles (like me), or those freakish characters with their wizened faces, dyed hair and gym-taut age-spotted papery muscles.
On the psychological front, the older I get the less patience I have – I think a whole village full of crotchety opinionated old dykes and fags like me would irritate me to death in fairly short order!!
Of course, the idea of building a specialized retirement facility for the gay community has been floated before. The ALSO Foundation was started for that very purpose. No home was ever built, but the provision of specialized care for gays and lesbians is still one of the organizations goals.
Nowadays it’s in the form of the Seniors Project, which aims to educate mainstream service providers in how to cater for the gay and lesbian market, avoid homophobia etc. But there are no plans to build a run a facility of their own.
A retirement home was also one of the projects of the ill-fated Satellite media group, which had ambitions to own all the gay media in Oz. Satellite collapsed spectacularly, taking investors money with it.
So a lot of us are going to be wary.
Some final thoughts. Surely an all-gay facility will fall foul of anti-discrimination law? Exactly how do the managers propose to make sure everyone there is lesbian or gay? What about bisexuals and trannies?
No, unless I’m forced into care, I’m staying in the community, where the eye-candy is better!
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Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
I guess the spirit of the village would be a place that was gay-friendly, instead of regular retirement villages, where there are probably quite a few conservative opinions..?
Comment by Doug Pollard
Rainbow Reporter
Other residents may have lived their whole lives never knowingly knowing (?) a gay person.
Staff may not be sympathetic to displays of same-sex affection, overnight visitors etc
Same sex couples may be denied shared accommodation.
Staff may not be au fait with specific glbti health problems.
Those of us who have ben out all our lives don't want to have to go back into he closet in our later years.
Residents who are perceived as 'difficult' may be given a hard time by staff and management.
In general, aged care homes are not comfortable places in which to be gay - this aims to create one in which gay will be the norm.
But how the hell you tell an applicant is gay (cue cheap WIll Farrel comedy).
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
in some ways, I think it a good idea, but, maybe they need to broaden it a little, so gay friendly people are included?
It should not transgress the laws then, and of course, there are gay only pubs and clubs in Melbourne, and female only places, inlcuding gyms, so I can't see how a gay only place could be stopped?
Anyway, I expect the best way to handle such a thing would be to be an expulsion clause in the contracts, so if you keep demonstrating homophobic behaviour, you are told to leave, forthwith, and your property put on the market.
Anyone siging up for that would most likely not include homophobics I would guess.
Anyway, as government continues to abandone common sense and fair play in rule of law, continuing down the extreme right wing idea of heterosexual slanted human rights etc, I see the growth of such facilities as important and warranted.
cheers
fog
P.S. Been to Daylesford, and Ballan, nice places, unless you are a friendly customer, chatting with the waiters and the old owner becomes jealous!
So, I agree, you are right about a community made up entirely of suspicious, jealous, snobbish, old wizened gays and lesbians et al, making life like an intolerable hot house! I hated that 'exclusionist' attitude in the clubs when I was younger, people like that bored me to tears!
P.P.S. Must try and get to your festival one day, keep us posted, as to when and what, as it approaches.
Comment by TimmyH
Can you HACK it?
Genyration
Comment by Doug Pollard
Rainbow Reporter
It's incredibly stressful. It's like being undercover - you either don't say much and cut yourself off, get a reputation for being unfriendly, or make up a false history, which you have to be careful to keep consistent, or you tell a modified version of the truth, changing the sex of friends and lovers etc.
I was born in an era when you had no choice about this - homosexuality was punishable with a prison sentence - so I can remember what it was like, and I have no intention of going back to that. Besides, I'm a lousy liar!!
When people say, "I don't mind people being gay, but why do they have to keep telling everyone?" - that's the reason. Because if you don't, they assume you're straight, and if you play along with them, you end up lying every day. Not healthy at any age!