Study: Gay generation gap disrupts communication

[kweerwolf]

Gays and lesbians face a large generational gap when it comes to communication, including a tendency by older gays to project their life experience on gay youths, according to a new study. The report, by the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, argues that gay and lesbian people must overcome communication challenges when working together across generations.

Whether working specifically with LGBT youth groups or in other contexts, people from different age cohorts have very different experiences and beliefs that reflect the rapid changes over time in the treatment of LGBT people in families, workplaces, schools, and communities, the report says. "In interviews with LGBT youth and adults, we found a noticeable gap in communications across generations," noted Glenda Russell, a coauthor of the report. "LGBT adults tend to project their own experiences onto today's young people, when in fact the lives of today's young people are often quite different."

The study notes several examples of this generation gap. "Alternative proms," organized by gay adults for gay high school youths, often seem to be designed to meet the needs of the adult organizers who missed their own proms rather than the needs of today's young people. Adults tend to focus on the suffering and isolation of LGBT youths, even though many LGBT teens are actually doing well. From the other direction, young LGBT people sometimes complain that no one is doing anything about discrimination, apparently unaware of decades of prior activism by LGBT adults. "The good news is that both sides can learn from each other," said coauthor Janis Bohan. "LGBT adults should be willing to follow the lead of young people, and young LGBT people should be willing to use adults as mentors."

Young people often provide a fresh perspective on issues that is both less constrained by past strategies for problem solving and less reliant on older—and perhaps incorrect—assumptions about the degree of homophobia, the report says. Adults, on the other hand, have greater experience and resources and are more familiar with the historical roots of the LGBT movement.

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid23670.asp

[Ally McLesbian]

1. The generation gap

is especially a problem in the MTF transgender community, where older ones tend to dismiss the younger ones for not having given manhood a chance, and younger ones dismiss older ones for acting and socializing in a very masculine manner.

I'm very sick of the MTF transgender community and its infighting. I prefer to hang out with bio-female lesbians, whose community seems to be in a better shape across generations.

[mitchtv]

2. Communications gap all right

Older folks like myself are all but invisible to some younger types.There is very little concern for the causes that move the older gays, thankfully we can all agree on AIDS strategies( generally speaking). Older folks tend to have more $ and can be a great help to programs for young and TG folks. Mature gays need to resist the tempttion to dictate policies and youngers need to be more patient of others' priorities

[Ayesha]

3. What I've noticed

At 28, I'm somewhat in the middle generation wise, but what I've noticed is that older generation lesbians have a lot more of a belief that the world is against them. One woman I know who is in her early 40's is always going on about how invisible, persecuted, etc. she feels as a lesbian in her everyday life, and it doesn't ring true to my experiences at all. Maybe if we were in Alabama, but this is L.A. fergodsake. Practically everyone we've met here has been accepting of us. There are a lot of shallow, nasty people here, but most of them don't care if you're gay or straight, they care if you have the fashionable car and the designer clothes. Considering that the aforementioned friend has a hairstyle that should have gone out with the 1980's, perhaps *that's* why she gets negative reactions from people.

That brings up another difference I have noticed. Older generations of gay people seem to hold on to and fit stereotypes more; I'm not sure what purpose it serves for them exactly, as to me it seems like a hindrance to being accepted. Young people treat their sexual orientation as just one aspect of their identity, and are less bound by roles like butch and femme, styles of dress, that sort of thing. When looking at a group of gay and straight teens, you can't always tell which is which. I don't mean that gay people are becoming more like straight people, but rather that there's more diversity in gender expression and style across orientations. I personally think that's a good thing.