If you passed through the Gayborhood this week, you may have seen the rainbow-colored gift wrapping on the John C. Anderson Apartments. While the project is certainly a gift to our community, what was clear at Monday’s opening of the LGBT-friendly senior-living facility is that the decades of work and leadership from our LGBT elders have yielded gifts that our community benefits from each day.
Many of the residents of the JCAA grew up and came out in a time when gay bars were raided frequently by police, and LGBT people were carted to prison for trumped-up charges that sprang solely from their being LGBT. Many LGBT gatherings were underground, with covert entrances to LGBT-centric venues. They grew up and came out in a time when homosexuality was classified by many major medical organizations as a mental disorder. Gay people were banned from becoming teachers, and investigations were launched to root out LGBT employees in government. Laws were on the books to criminalize same-sex activity. The infrastructure of the entire country was inherently anti-LGBT — not to mention how that entrenched misunderstanding and discrimination fueled personal perceptions of and reactions by family and friends to an LGBT person’s coming out.
But, this generation of our community weathered those storms. Through their coming out, they began fighting discrimination on a personal level, and through their gradual community-building they began working to deconstruct the pervasive, endemic LGBT discrimination at the societal level.
Today, our gay bars line many of Philadelphia’s streets, with rainbow flags flying proudly and large windows opening to the street. Our Pride events turn the city rainbow and make headlines — positive headlines — in print and televised mainstream news. All credible medical organizations have declassified homosexuality as a disorder and many are working to evince the damage caused by trying to change one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBT people are employed across all fields, in schools — most of which now are home to gay-straight alliances — and in city, state and federal government. Laws guaranteeing the rights of LGBT people are gaining speed across the country. And with that rapidly building societal acceptance, LGBT people are feeling free to come out younger and younger, to increasing instances of family support.
Certainly, there is tremendous work that lies ahead — the state of Arizona is proof-positive of that. But, the about-face our country has done in the last several decades is thanks to our early pioneers. They are the ones who have made it possible for our community to be a community, and one that is vibrant, successful and full of possibility.
JCAA is certainly a gift that will be treasured by our community for years to come. But it’s the courageous contributions of the men and women who walk its halls that granted the gift of freedom to LGBT generations to come. For that, we thank you.