“I love being myself, but society didn’t.”
SAGE Story is our national digital storytelling program for LGBTQ+ older adults that focuses on storytelling as a way to diversify the public narratives on aging, long-term care and LGBTQ+ rights. Through the generous support of the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, SAGE Story programs were established at SAGE sites in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to build their capacities as LGBTQ+ aging advocates and to collect stories on the ways in which discrimination has affected LGBTQ+ older people. To highlight this exciting initiative, we will be featuring a special SAGE Story on this blog throughout February and March. In addition, be sure to watch all of the amazing stories that our LGBTQ+ pioneers share with us on our specific page dealing with discrimination.
This week, we are highlighting Timothy’s Story. Timothy comes to us from our partners at The Freedom Center for Social Justice in Charlotte, NC.
Based in Charlotte, NC, the Freedom Center for Social Justice is a social justice non-profit organization working at the intersections of race, class, faith, social justice, sexual orientation and gender identity. In Timothy’s video, he talks about how difficult it was growing up in a society that was anti-gay and how he eventually overcame a drug addiction. “I love being myself, but society didn’t. That’s why I chose drugs.” Watch his story below or on our SAGE Story site.
