Caring For The Stonewall Generation
Senior Advisor and National LGBT Liaison at AARP, Nii-Quartelai Quartey sees the big picture. Suffering a crisis of discrimination and social isolation, the aging LGBT population numbers in the millions, yet many individuals have to deny their identity to receive care and housing. Nii-Quartelai makes the case for intersectional analysis and multicultural collaboration as an essential strategy to affect nationwide change.
December 5, 2019
Transcript
I am not Harvey Milk, but I am here to recruit you.
You are looking at Emmy Award-winning actor Billy Porter.
Yes, you can clap for that.
Billy stars in the groundbreaking FX series Pose. He became the first openly gay Black man to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Pray Tell, a charismatic emcee in New York City’s 1980s ballroom scene.
From Broadway to television and beyond, Billy Porter’s on-screen characters remind us that maintaining one’s dignity may be the greatest love of all.
Billy knew he was gay from a very young age. He grew up in a deeply religious household that prevented him from being his whole self. He left home as a teenager, but throughout his career, he was unable to escape anti-gay discrimination and systemic homophobia.
In 2017, Billy married his longtime partner.
Billy was born just weeks before the Stonewall uprising in 1969, a milestone in the modern LGBTQ rights movement. He has matured as the movement itself has matured.
But imagine if Billy, like too many LGBTQ older adults, were suddenly stripped of the right to be employed, the right to marry, or the right to be treated equally during the final years of his life.
The fierce urgency of now is upon us.
This is the nightmare that too many LGBTQ older adults fear. It is what makes caring for the Stonewall generation absolutely necessary. It is an act of love, an act of respect, and, most importantly, a demonstration of dignity for all.
I am here to tell you about Billy Porter’s breakthrough moments in life and his career. I am also here to help you understand why the fight for LGBTQ equality, equity, and liberation is the cause of an entire generation.
My cause is your cause, too, if you believe in the right to human dignity for all.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. It offers an extraordinary vantage point from which to consider how far we have come and how much further we still have to go.
Let us take a brief journey through that history.
In 1973, just days before Christmas, The New York Times reported that the board of trustees of the American Psychiatric Association had approved a change to its official manual of psychiatric disorders.
“Homosexuality per se,” the trustees voted, should no longer be considered a psychiatric
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