It’s that time of year again when we pull out the rainbow flags and head downtown to celebrate who we are. Sometimes we bring sunscreen, sometimes umbrellas, but we always bring a sense of pride.

This month LGBT Pride Parades will be held across the country and around the world to celebrate what happened here in our state more than three decades ago. The uprising at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 1969 is seen as the kick-off to the modern LGBT rights movement. That moment marked a change in our approach -- we would now face the world with Pride.

Not to say everyone was ready to do this, but that was the strategy. Let’s get everyone to march through the city one day out of the year and celebrate their lives -- even if the other 364 days were spent hiding who they are. Especially if the rest of the year was spent hiding. Sometimes people wore bags over their heads in those first Pride Parades.

And through the years the bags have almost disappeared and the marches have gotten bigger, and we’ve found many other ways to be proud. Still, the march is what got us here. Back when homosexuality was still seen as a mental illness, before we had supportive laws, out politicians, lesbian talk-show hosts, Sage organizations, or LGBT youth centers, a group of brave folks marched through New York City and other urban areas to say they were proud.

Maybe some of you who are reading this took part in the Stonewall riots or those first few parades. Or maybe you read about them and found strength in the thought that things were changing. Either way -- your actions in those early years, your presence “in the life,” your courage to be LGBT in whatever way you could -- is what we all build on today as we take our movement forward. It’s important to remember that older LGBT people are the ones who made the progress we see today possible.

Despite the progress, we still have a ways to go. There are still people out there who are unable to feel proud of being LGBT. There are still people who only show pride at the parade every year. There are also those who can’t even do that. That’s why we still march. To show mainstream society that we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re proud. And to show our closeted brothers and sisters that the way OUT.

March with Sage Upstate in the CNY Pride Parade on June 19! Hope to see you there or at some other event sometime this month!

Hi all, 

Probably once a week I am asked, "What does S-A-G-E stand for?" And up until last month, my response has been complicated -- something like this:

    Our organizations is modeled after Sage in New York City,
    which was established 30 years ago with the acronym SAGE
    standing for "Seniors in a Gay Environment", but since then
    they’ve changed to "Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders."
    When Sage Upstate's founders established our organization
    in 1997, they decided not to use the acronym and just to take
    Sage to mean a wise person, or wisdom.

I think by the end of that explanation most folks forgot what they asked, or maybe ceased caring about the answer. But all that is over now, because in February the Sage Upstate board voted to adopt "Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders." So my response to the question will be much simpler.

Why adopt the acronym? There are a few really good reasons. First, it aligns us with every other Sage in the country who all use this acronym. It connects us to what "Sage" means everywhere else.

Second, it emphasizes that our programs and services are designed to meet the needs of elders in our community. We have no age limit, and a growing number of folks in their 50s and even 40s are participating and joining, but when we develop programs we have aging in mind. We are concerned with the needs of the older folks in the community and the aging process that leads us to that point in the life cycle.

Third, I am going to save a lot of time since I don't have to explain the history of Sage Upstate each time I am asked about the acronym. Whew. Here are a few things we are really excited about this month:

• We are actually able to offer a legal clinic at Sage Upstate with the help of Board Member Mary Traynor.  It’s a legal information and referral clinic for people who can’t afford to see a lawyer -- self defined, no income requirements.

• Ralph Valente, our Board Chair is offering another cooking class. This is a hot ticket, and as with his two prior classes, this one is already filled up. If you are interested, call us and get on the sign-up list for the next class.

• Kyle Bass has agreed to share an afternoon with us, talking about his work on plays like Tales from the Salt City. This event kicks of a series in which performers and professionals share their stories.