Marching for Pride, retirees recall an era when being gay was forbidden

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Marching for Pride, retirees recall an era when being gay was forbidden

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Marching for Pride, retirees recall an era when being gay was forbidden

By Tara Bahrampour
June 21, 2021 at 8:30 p.m. EDT

On Monday morning, a bus stopped at Fort Ward Park in Alexandria and dropped off a group of passengers with mostly white hair, a few walking sticks and rainbows on their T-shirts. ... The day already felt like a steam bath, but they had slathered on sunblock and put on hats to participate in what for many was their first Pride parade. Goodwin House, their retirement community, organized the march for residents at its Alexandria location, after doing one earlier this month at its Baileys Crossroads location, both for the first time.

“I love the sign,” James Hoben, 79, said to a woman holding a placard with a rainbow-striped heart. “ ‘Love Wins’ — there you go.” ... For Hoben, a retired federal government employee, joining his first Pride march had personal significance. ... “I have an older brother who’s transsexual, and he did face all this discrimination,” Hoben said. “He had to live a double life, and that was strenuous. . . . By the time he was 10, he knew . . . and at that time, my parents didn’t understand it or accept it. They just took an attitude like a lot of other people: ‘Just change.’ ”

The U.S. government and society in general had a similar attitude; in the 1950s, the government covertly investigated employees’ sexual orientation and fired thousands of gay and lesbian employees. The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance.

Now as LGBTQ people who fought for equality and acceptance in the 20th century have aged, facilities catering to them have become more welcoming.

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By Tara Bahrampour
Tara Bahrampour, a staff writer based in Washington, D.C., writes about aging, generations and demography. She has also covered immigration and education and has reported from the Middle East and North Africa, and from the republic of Georgia. Twitter https://twitter.com/TaraBahrampour