I came out of denial and out as a gay man about 10 years ago. I was 42 at that time, but I had been doing community volunteer work since I was a teenager in Boy Scouts.
I went back to college at 48 to study social service work. One of my placements during college was with an LGBTQ organization. I participated in adult gay men’s groups, youth group, positive space training, and media events. The one thing I didn’t participate in was the Trans* related services and events. I was told when I was hired that I would not be allowed to participate in the Trans* services because I was a mature cis male. Interesting side not, a year after I graduated my youngest child who was identifying as lesbian came out as Trans* male… but that’s a post for another time.
I loved it. I really enjoyed doing the positive space training. We would give presentations to corporate, government, and school administration people on LGBTQ awareness in the work place or school. The thing I got the most satisfaction from was the youth group. I found the youth group to be the most genuine of all the group activities. All the adult stuff seemed to be calculated or scripted in a way. The youth group was just a bunch of teenagers trying to have a fun night of typical teenage activities in a safe environment with like minded peers. My approach was that I’m the old guy on their turf so I was the one who had to adapt to their social norms. I think I may have learned more from the kids then they learned from me.
When it came to community activities like pride parade, violence against LGBTQ community awareness events, fundraising, events and so on the youth group kids were always the most enthusiastic of the participants. Some of those youth were really good peer leaders and I’m sure some of them will be the future community leaders in their adult life.
I also did one semester with an at risk and homeless youth emergency shelter. That was an eye opener. I wasn’t there as an LGBTQ worker but being that 40% of homeless youth in North America identify as LGTBQ the need for LGBTQ services were all around me every day. The shelter was administrated and staffed by a christian organization and unfortunately gay was something they all knew existed but they never spoke of it. If there is one thing we have to do for at risk youth is get the services out of the hands of religious organizations.
Sorry, got on a roll there and wasted way too many bytes.