Via Belirico: The Next Time You See An Old Man On The Bus...

Filed by: D Gregory Smith

April 18, 2010 1:00 PM

I have met a lot of interesting people in my wide and varied life.

I am especially enamored of old people. Mostly because as I get to know them, I get to hear the stories of their lives- and to me, there's nothing more interesting than people and their stories. I also love that their stories often directly contradict the first impression- which is usually along the lines of: "What a sweet, lovely, peaceful, old person with little or no sexuality, political preference or opinion on popular culture."

I love hearing the stories of our elders- LGBT Elders. And, yeah, I know I might be getting into trouble for calling them that, but that's what they are. And that's exactly what we need. We need the voices of experience and wisdom in our community. We've forgotten that in the wake of parties, anti-retrovirals, botox and high fashion.

We lost many (mostly gay men) in the 80s and 90s to AIDS. We ignore the ones we have now in deference to our cultural fixation on youth. We call them "trolls", "hags" etc. It ain't right. I mean, seriously, it's incorrect. They are human beings. With stories.

I have a friend, who is of an "advanced age." He made mention of his rowdy youth once in our correspondence, and I asked him exactly what he meant. He responded. Wonderfully, graphically, he responded.

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