At a recent North Beach LGBTQ+ & Friends event at a Fort Lauderdale wine bar, an 89-year-old man approached John Mather.
“He said, ‘You’ve made my life so difficult!’ I said, ‘What?’” Mather recalls. “And he said, ‘Now I have to choose where I’m gonna go every night of the week, because there’s so much going on!’ Then he said, ‘Seriously, you guys have changed my life.’”
Mather and husband, Ryan Maloney, never intended to change lives when they started North Beach LGBTQ+ & Friends, a social group hosting events in the North Beach area of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Their intent, Mather explains, was simply to give their friends and neighbors in the area, which happens to be home to a sizeable population of older LGBTQ+ folks, something to do.
But having something to do can make a world of difference in LGBTQ+ seniors’ lives. According to the Movement Advancement Project, SAGE, and Diverse Elders Coalition, older LGBTQ+ adults are less likely to be married or partnered than their straight, cisgender counterparts. They are twice as likely to live alone and are particularly vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness, which can have real and dramatic impacts on both physical health and mental well-being. In 2021, SAGE reported that 59 percent of LGBTQ+ elders reported feeling a lack of companionship, while 53 percent reported feeling isolated. […]
Click here to read the full piece. This story was originally published by Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper on September 30, 2023.
