SENIORS
Sustaining a Vision for LGBTQ Seniors of Color
Only queer aging organization of its kind fi ghts for a stable future
BY MATT TRACY
On a cloudy, drizzly weekday in early
September, volunteer James Serrano
was holding down the front
desk at Griot Circle, an organization
based in downtown Brooklyn that is dedicated
to serving LGBTQ seniors of color.
“I feel very comfortable here,” Serrano, who
joined the organization as a member in November
of last year, told Gay City News. “It’s like a
second home.”
As he was fi nishing his sentence, the doorbell
rang. Another visitor was at the door — and
Serrano was there to answer, just as he is every
Wednesday and Thursday from 3 p.m. to 5
p.m. He rotates with other volunteers who also
welcome guests into a space that has become a
refuge for older queer clients of color.
The 23-year-old organization offers a plethora
of services ranging from educational opportunities
to social activities, daily lunch, and
case management. Griot Circle, a name derived
from a West African term for storytellers who
pass down a community’s culture and heritage
through oral traditions, is the only staffed organization
in the nation specifi cally serving
LGBTQ older adults of color. That unique mission
is based on a clear demand out in the community,
but it also suggests a broader national
ambition — the nonprofi t hopes to someday expand
its reach across the US, especially as the
growth in the population of LGBTQ seniors of
color outpaces that of their white counterparts
over the next several decades.
That expansive vision can be daunting for
a cash-strapped organization. The nonprofit
is perched in a nondescript older building
tucked into an evolving downtown Brooklyn
streetscape, and that is but one indication of
the sobering fi nancial realities for an organization
desperately clamoring for tax dollars while
larger queer and aging organizations enjoy the
lion’s share of government funding.
Griot Circle relies mostly on private donors
as well as some small bursts of city funding,
for which the organization is grateful, especially
since other levels of government have not
chipped in. But the issue remains: absorbing
the needs of a growing demographic requires
more resources.
For all these fi nancial limitations, the organization
has managed to expand from a health
and wellness-based focus to a “comprehensive,
one-stop shop service for seniors” under current
executive director José Albino, an LGBTQ
immigrant of color whose breadth of experience
in the aging fi eld brought him to the organization’s
top post fi ve years ago.
GRIOT CIRCLE
José Albino has led Griot Circle for the past fi ve years.
“I am a therapist,” Albino said as he sat at his
desk in his dimly lit offi ce just down the hall
from a room full of members engaged in a lively
group discussion. “I have been working in the
aging fi eld for over 25 years.”
Upon arriving at the organization, Albino
implemented a series of changes after noticing
there was a lack of proactive focus on the
full range of needs facing queer seniors of color.
The nonprofi t now has support groups for men,
women, transgender folks, and HIV-positive individuals,
as well as programs in which members
go into local communities to provide education
about the emerging intersection of aging
and HIV.
“Fifty percent of individuals who are HIVpositive
in this country are over the age of 50,”
Albino pointed out.
Tai Chi, knitting, wood carving, and fi nancial
literacy workshops are among other options
available to members. The organization
has also embarked on a peer-to-peer program
so folks can go to movies, shop, and enjoy other
activities together.
Griot Circle, to its credit, has not shied away
from trying new things.
“We refuse to do bingo,” Albino said, smiling.
“Our members deserve a more elevated approach
to living in their truth.”
The 400-plus seniors who utilize Griot Circle
every year appear pleased with their experience
there. Serrano, who lives in the Kensington section
of Brooklyn, said he was enduring a housing
crisis of his own when he joined Griot Circle
at the recommendation of his cousin, who
was already a member. Serrano has not looked
back.
“I called one day and then I came in and
signed up,” he said. “The members and volunteers
make everybody feel welcome. There’s a lot
of love around here.”
Mental health services have emerged as an
important piece of the nonprofi t’s mission, especially
since many members have faced homophobia
and transphobia in their places of
worship or in their families.
“This is where we have to realize that this is
a population that has not basked in the civil
liberties that we have now,” Albino explained.
“Everyone is using these gender pronouns and
getting married. These are people who came
from a place of trauma in the ‘80s and ‘70s
when being gay was viewed as a psychological
disorder. They were getting married and having
children to hide who they were.”
Many clients remain closeted at home, so
they travel long distances — some commute
more than an hour and a half from the Bronx
on a daily basis — to the friendlier confi nes of
Griot Circle. The organization hopes to ease
that strain by opening satellite locations in
other boroughs, but fi nancial hurdles must be
surmounted fi rst.
Public dollars don’t come easily. The city’s
Department for the Aging provides support
through a subcontracting agreement and the
organization has received discretionary funding
boosts from the local councilmember,
Laurie Cumbo, as well as from out gay Councilmembers
Carlos Menchaca of Brooklyn and
Ritchie Torres of the Bronx and Speaker Corey
Johnson of Manhattan. Discretionary funds,
however, are only shelled out on a year-to-year
basis and are subject to budget cuts.
“That funding doesn’t even translate to even
one percent of our budget,” Albino stressed.
“That’s another conversation of how the City
Council distributes money to LGBT organizations.”
While the big organizations swim in cash, he
noted, they are often lacking in diversity and do
not have the same intersectional focus. Many
Griot Circle members do not feel comfortable
fl ocking to places that are predominantly white,
and that reinforces the need for an organization
such as this. Albino pointed out that 70 percent
of the group’s members are women — and without
his organization, their alternative could be
spaces that are not only mostly white but also
male-dominated.
The lack of attention to the specifi c needs of
queer people of color means that negative so-
➤ GRIOT CIRCLE, continued on p.9
September 26 - October 9,8 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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