Victoria to get first GLBT retirement village in Australia
By Reg Domingo, SX News, Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Australia’s first retirement village for gay, lesbian and transgender people is set to open in regional Victoria. Featuring 120 single-storey 2/3 bedroom units, the project, Linton Estate, will be built in Ballan, in Moorabool Council, an hour’s drive from Melbourne’s CBD. It will be built on a 7.5ha site and will feature a tennis court, a bowling green, an open-air theatre and a multi-million dollar leisure centre which will house a swimming pool, spa, gymnasium, café, restaurant, piano room, business centre and a section dedicated to health and well-being.

  Sex really does get better with age
By Kate Dailey An Advocate.com exclusive posted August 12, 2008
An increasing number of 70 year olds are having good sex and more often, and women in this age group are particularly satisfied with their sex lives, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. Knowledge about sexual behaviour in older people (70 year olds) is limited and mainly focuses on sexual problems, less is known about "normal" sexual behaviour in this age group.

The authors found that over the thirty year period the number of 70 year olds of both sexes reporting sexual intercourse increased: married men from 52% to 68%, married women from 38% to 56%, unmarried men from 30% to 54%, and unmarried women from 0.8% to 12%.

  Aging in America - Forget canasta - senior citizens are having sex just like the rest of us.
By Kate Dailey An Advocate.com exclusive posted August 12, 2008
But until gay groups like SAGE came around, no one ever talked to them about it. As Kate Dailey finds out, that’s just one of many innovations credited to gays and lesbians. For anyone who thinks growing older is just about playing bingo and learning to crochet, consider the intimacy room. Nursing homes and senior care centers that accept federal funds must provide space for private, intimate time with a loved one (or a stranger from down the hall).

And as the director of advocacy and training for Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders, a nationally focused group with offices in New York City, it’s Karen Taylor’s job to ensure that gay residents have the same access to the intimacy room as hetero seniors. But in doing so, she discovered that no one was talking to seniors about sex. “We were embarrassing people just by bringing it up,” says Taylor. “Very open-minded folks would say, ‘I don’t ask anyone about their sex lives.’ Well, you should!”

  One can never be too old or too gay
Kelvin Browne, Weekend Post, Published: Saturday, June 28, 2008
Gays have long enjoyed good branding: cute, buff and young. But, shocking as this may seem, the reality is that even gays get old. Who'd have thought it would happen to those beautiful, almost-naked boys frolicking on floats during the Pride Parade? Ageing is a terrible word in the gay community, raising as it does the spectre of turning into an old queen. Imagine Quentin Crisp, not as entertainment but as the reflection in your mirror..

  HIV Screening Found Cost-effective in Older Adults
ScienceDaily (June 18, 2008)
Recent studies suggest that large numbers of Americans remain sexually active well into their 60’s, 70’s and even 80’s. But researchers at Duke University Medical Center say seniors may be overlooked as possible carriers of the AIDS virus, and based on a new study, they are recommending screening for most adults ages 55 to 75 as a sensible, cost-effective way to prolong life and decrease the spread of the disease.

“Many of us might think of HIV as associated with teens and younger adults, but statistics show that 19 percent of those infected were diagnosed at age 50 or older,” says Gillian Sanders, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and the lead author of the study appearing in the June 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

  Older same-sex couples can't believe their time has come
By Tammerlin Drummond The Oakland Tribune Article Created: 06/17/2008 07:31:46 PM PDT
In the 1950s, Mona's jazz club in San Francisco was the spot where gay women and men gathered — under deep cover. Back then, there was no such thing as "gay pride." No LGBT social mixers at the ballet or the theater. No gay teen alliances in public high schools. This was almost two decades before the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York that launched the modern-day gay rights movement. Gay men and lesbians were persecuted and prosecuted all across America — solely because of their sexual orientation.

...For seniors who were gay before Hollywood decided that gay was chic, the California Supreme Court's decision to strike down the state's ban on gay marriage is especially significant. They lived through the kind of prejudice and bigotry that those in their teens, 20s, 30s and even 40s, can't imagine. Many gay people in their 60s, 70s and older never thought they would live to see the day same-sex couples would be afforded the same legal right to marry as heterosexuals — at least in the state of California.

  50+Proud helping older gays cope
By Craig Pearson, Windsor Star Published: Saturday, June 15, 2008
They often can't live with their partners in seniors homes, encounter medical workers who don't understand their culture, and face lonely times without children. But the aging gay community in Windsor - growing, like all Baby Boomers - now has a new and uncommon club they can turn to for help and companionship: 50+Proud. "This is the next step in the evolution of Pride," said Dani Bobb, the 50+Proud committee chair, referring to the annual Windsor Pride gay celebration and organization. "We want a better quality of life for gay seniors."

  Five symptoms men shouldn't ignore
Gay.com, Wed Jun 4, 2008
Conventional wisdom is true, many doctors say: Men tend to seek medical attention when they're at death's door -- CNN's Elizabeth Cohen shares the top five symptoms men ignore -- sometimes until it's too late.

  Startling masturbation survey results!
Gay.com, Wed Jun 4, 2008
in May, Gay.com ran a series of truly unique and provocative surveys about solo sex. The results were surprising, to say the least. Some of the more eye-opening stats: 41 percent of straight men have masturbated in a gym locker room -- while only 34 percent of gay men have. 51 percent of gay men say they masturbate more when they are in a relationship. 53 percent of gay men say they masturbate once a day.

  High Court Ruling Enhances Potential GLBT Real Estate Benefits
Denver, Colorado - June 5, 2008
A landmark decision handed down on May 15th by the California Supreme Court gives same-sex couples a constitutional right to marry, and by doing so it also helps to roll back and eliminate longstanding practices of discrimination against GLBT couples regarding real estate ownership. Federal Fair Housing Law in the USA is extensive, powerful, and vital to guarding and upholding our civil rights. The Architectural Barriers Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination Act, and half a dozen Presidential Executive Orders all provide various kinds of protections and legal rights that fall under the broad category of Fair Housing Law.

  Raymond Burr’s Gay Life Wide Open
by Alternative Newswire
Raymond Burr’s private gay life will soon be made public in a new biography. The Perry Mason actor told suits and the public that he had lost a wife and son, but Burr actually lived in 35-year long committed relationship with another man, Robert Benevide. Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Life of Raymond Burr

  Does Your Medical Insurance Include Felatio?
by Alternative Newswire
A man who went in for surgery at a Miami hospital got more than what his insurance company will probably pay for. According to police reports, the 31-year-old patient was coming off anesthesia when he realized a male hospital employee was remedying an oral fixation with the patient’s manhood! Pedro J. Gonzalez, a Mount Sinai Medical Center employee, was arrested Wednesday after he confessed to performing a sex act on a male patient waking up from anesthesia after surgery.

  Almost a third of gay men were married before coming out
Sarah Treleaven , The Ottawa Citizen
Research shows that 29 per cent of gay men do marry someone from the opposite sex before coming out...Many people are trying to find their way in their early years, and they want to be accepted."

  Gay couples as committed as straight couples
Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:26pm GMT - NEW YORK (Reuters)
Gay and lesbian couples are just as committed in their relationships as heterosexuals and the legal status of their union doesn't impact their happiness, according to new research. In two new studies that compared same-sex and heterosexual couples using different factors and methods to assess their happiness, scientists found few differences.

They found that regardless of sexual orientation, as the level of commitment increased, so did the ability to resolve conflict -- debunking the myth that same-sex relationships are not built on the same level of commitment as heterosexual ones.

  Star Trek's Mr Sulu, George Takei, to wed boyfriend in Californian gay marriage
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles 21/05/2008
George Takei, the American actor best known for his portrayal of Star Trek's original Mr Sulu, is to tie the knot with his longtime boyfriend after California legalised same-sex marriage. The actor announced on his website that after 21 years together, he and Brad Altman, his business manager partner, were "overjoyed" to be able to marry legally and were "enjoying the delicious dilemma of deciding where, when, and how we will be married".