Gay and Lesbian Elders Active in Minnesota
Gay and Lesbian Elders Active in Minnesota (GLEAM) – (initially the 1501 Park Avenue) Bethany Lutheran Church, 2511 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
GLBT society has arguably been presented as a young person’s world. For example, many contemporary queer publications depict attractive and young faces on their covers to invoke greater readership, and thus better distribution (see: Lavender Magazine). Seniors are frequently absent from these portraits—older queer people add longevity, reality, and personal experience to a culture that developed transience and superficiality in order to survive the tumult of the 20th century.
The present generation of queer youth and the Pre-Stonewall generations are separated by decades of radical societal change. WWII-era people have difficulty identifying with contemporary identities that were once derogatory definitions (“Queer,” “Homo,” “Fairy,” etc.). Their struggles are difficult to imagine 40 years after the Stonewall Riots.
Gay and Lesbian Elders Active in Minnesota (GLEAM) organized in February of 1989 to serve a community with unique challenges—these range from identity politics to isolation, and from nursing home care to arranging wills without marriage rights. GLEAM predominantly provides an organized space for social interaction every month on a Sunday afternoon. Socializing may seem a relatively mundane goal, but the meeting allows an exchange of information for individuals who are unused to (or perhaps unimpressed by) the immediate and anonymous transfer of information provided by the internet.
This page is still under construction. -SVC
Part of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-1969), (1969-2010)
