Generation Mix

Generation Mix

Cindy, Mariah, Amy, and Thao: This is the Intergenerational Storytelling Project.

Cindy: A group of various youngsters met regularly for six weeks at New Leaf to hear about the life stories of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender elders.

Thao: Not only did we want to hear from the elders, the elders were excited to hear from the youth as well.

The group consists of eight youth and ten elders.

Amy: We would chat about topics such as gay marriage, how the media portrays the LGBT community and events from LGBT history.

Cindy: Not to mention the bars that the elders went to.

[Music: "Old Time Rock & Roll"]

John: In the army, in Kunming, China at that time, there were several gay bars, in fact two run by the Fourteenth Air Force. And there were many, many gay guys in China, and that was paradise for me.

There was the French Consulate in Kunming, and he had a big place. And he had a straight bar here, and a gay bar here, and you'd never know where to go because it was sort of mixed.

And I went in and sat down by this guy one time, he was very nice looking, and he looked at me and said, "Are you gay?"

I'd never heard the word gay before. I said, "I don't know!" I said, "What does it mean?"

He said, "Well, let's find out."

So, we did.

[Group laughing]

I did.

And I was, and I am. Always will be. Yeah.

[Music: "Old Time Rock & Roll"]

Mariah: Okay. So maybe you think that hearing the stories from the elders would be boring. But you know what? The elders are actually pretty funny.

Cindy: All of the topics that we talk about are rated PG.

Ray: So Russel said, "would you like to go and see Josephine Baker?" I said, "Oh, sure!" So we went to see her, and then afterwards he said, "Would you like to go backstage and meet her?" I said, "Sure, that'd be a thrill!" I said, "How do you know her?" He said, "We had the same French boyfriend."

[Group laughing]

Cindy: Okay, so maybe our speech is not as restricted.

[Music: "It's Raining Men"]

Ray: Men are always more sexy than women, I think. Or at least they think they are.

[Music: "It's Raining Men"]

Thao: Let me tell you, the seniors love having the youth around.

[Music: "Changes"]

Cindy: How do you guys perceive the youth?

Eva: I think they're very exciting, because, and I think because of what some of us have done, it makes it easier for them to come out and be out, or if they decide not to, they don't have to. And then there are places for them to go to if they have questions. And hotlines and things like that, which I think is very important, which I never had when I was a kid.

Natalie: My parents, they don't really allow me to even really talk about being gay at my house. Like, there's one designated day of the week when I get to talk about being gay. And that's Wednesday. And even then, they don't really like it. They always tell me oh, it's inappropriate to be around my sisters saying that, it's inappropriate to talk about, and then my sisters all chime in, like, told me that I had a choice to be gay.

[Music: "RESPECT"]

Natasha: Because I look like a very straight girl, um, you know, I get kind of prejudice for it. Because a lot of people think that a bisexual is just sort of people who either, you know, want to just be trendy, or a bisexual is one step towards being a lesbian or being gay.

Cindy: Sometimes the youth and elders do not see eye to eye, but...

Amy: ...despite the clash of opinions between the youth and the elders, both generations were supportive of what each person had to say.

Mariah: Did I mention that the seniors have some serious kickass attitude?

MJ: Back in the day, and I'm talking about the 50s and 60s, a little bit of the 70s, there were no visible role models for lesbians. Or studbroads as we called them in the Black community.

And I had heard of a Black woman who, when she entered the room, men would shiver. I said, "Wow, I like her." She was a dyke, and she was a armrobber. Her name was Billie Weir. She was also a drug addict. That, I just didn't associate with. But I associate with the fact that she was the most powerful woman I had ever seen in the hood.

And it was serious, when she walked down the street men would get out of her way, because she was crazy. And she would do a little bit of anything. She was a notorious lover, she was notorious for taking wives away from husbands, she was notorious for shooting up joints, she was just Jesse James on the set. And I admired her.

So I just modelled myself after her, I wanted to be dangerous, so I hung with guys who were gamblers. It got me a living, I really was able to make a lot of money and live a very exciting life.

[Music: "Baby Love"]

Becky: I said well maybe we could put this rainbow flag up the flagpole and just kinda shake the world up a little bit. Because Florida is not very safe. LGB and T people down there, but it's not... So I put this flag up. And then several months later, when my son came down to visit from Minnesota, two men and a woman came to the door, and so I answered the door. And it turned out this was a gay couple. Lived down the street.

They said, "We just live down the street here. And you know what? Across the way here, there's another gay couple. Oh, and down that street over here there's another gay couple. And we saw your flag and we just had to find out who lives there." Because no one else dared ever put anything like that up. So I really came out of the woodwork there.

[Music: "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"]

Cindy: Well this has been a fun time.

[Group: agreement noises - Yeah!]

Cindy: Thank you.

[Music: "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"]

Ray (singing along): I left my heart in San Francisco.

Cindy: Hanging out with the elders was not as bad as we thought. We will definitely do this again. New Leaf really felt like another home, another place to hang out and share what's on our mind about the LGBT community.

For outLoud Radio, this is the fabulous Cindy Pham.