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How a vacant Boston school was transformed into thriving housing for LGBTQ+ seniors

How a vacant Boston school was transformed into thriving housing for LGBTQ+ seniors

NBC News5 days ago

An old school building in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood, once vacant and 'creepy,' is now buzzing with life while teaching new lessons in community and inclusion.
Exactly one year after opening its doors, The Pryde has transformed the historic 1902 structure into New England's first LGBTQ+ welcoming affordable senior housing community.
Karmen Cheung, Pennrose New England Regional VP, recalled the building's previous state.
'I remember walking in and doing a tour of the building when it was vacant for the first time,' Cheung said. 'It was actually kind of creepy, cold, dark.'
The vision, however, was clear: to turn an historic building into an independent living space where LGBTQ+ seniors could feel a strong sense of belonging. The result is a vibrant community that residents like Brian Salvaggio deeply appreciate.
'It's bright, it's open, it's lively,' Salvaggio said. 'It's really the first group of people that's lived here, so you feel part of something.'
For many residents, The Pryde offers a much-needed haven.
'As we get older and we want more community around us and we want more support around us, that's really what brought us here,' resident Pat Xavier said.
The 100% accessible building addresses a critical need for a generation of LGBTQ+ elders who grew up without the legal protections and societal acceptance now afforded to younger generations, according to Gretchen Van Ness, executive director of LGBTQ Senior Housing.
'This generation of LGBTQ elders has faced such losses that they come into their elder years with a much smaller safety net than a lot of other folks are lucky to have,' Van Ness said.
The journey to create The Pryde was a dedicated nine-and-a-half-year collaboration between LGBTQ Senior Housing and Pennrose Management. Throughout the renovation, developers diligently preserved the building's historic charm, retaining elements like original chalkboards and bell systems.
'Every unit is actually a little different because of those historic pieces,' Cheung said.
The Pryde is open to anyone over 62 who qualifies for affordable housing, though demand has far outstripped availability.
'We are 100% occupied,' Van Ness said. 'This community is full and it's hopping and there's a million things going on.'
For residents, the most significant impact is the feeling of safety and liberation from discrimination and isolation.
'That's just a wonderful feeling because, you know, there's no more hiding,' Brian Salvaggio said. 'Not at our age. We want to be who we are and enjoy the time we have.'

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The exact moment I realised I was a gay gypsy terrified me – but it was family's reaction that really shocked me
The exact moment I realised I was a gay gypsy terrified me – but it was family's reaction that really shocked me

The Sun

timea day ago

  • The Sun

The exact moment I realised I was a gay gypsy terrified me – but it was family's reaction that really shocked me

MARRYING a woman and having lots of children is how those in the traveller community expected my life to play out. So when I finally found the courage to break from the Romany Gypsy 'normal' and face the fact that I wanted to be with a man instead I was terrified about how they would react - and I was right to be concerned. 10 10 10 I come from a family of travellers and men who confess they're gay face the wrath of the community. I've known some take their own lives because the struggle to admit the truth is too difficult. It's so rare to come out as gay I felt frightened. Now, I am married to a man - we have four kids together with two more on the way. From an early age I knew I was different but when I was 18 and kissed a man for the first time I knew there was no turning back. During my childhood the other boys loved nothing more than mucking about on the Piddlehinton traveller site, near Dorchester in Dorset, where I spent most of my youth. I wasn't like them - they'd climb trees, make dens and mess about mending cars. I joined in because I was expected to but at the slightest excuse I'd creep back to my mum's caravan, and help her with the cooking. I loved the warmth and the delicious smells - I even liked helping her clean by doing the mopping. I'd watch my older relatives who were so capable and comfortable cutting down trees or working in gardens unable to imagine ever being like them. They'd say I'd soon be working with them - they'd teach me the skills - but I felt suffocated. I'm a gypsy & there's strict rules about how me and my man behave in public As I grew up other traveller boys left school at 11 or 12 and started helping out round the site and going out washing cars. I was so grateful my mum was determined I'd get an education – even though teachers told her I'd never be academic and the most they could expect was that I'd leave being able to read and write. It was a double-edged sword though because I didn't fit in at school and was mercilessly bullied. I was called 'gypo' or 'the gypsy boy'- I never felt like I belonged. I desperately tried to be like the other traveller boys. I started dating a traveller girl when I was 12 which was arranged and I had to talk to her father before we could date. When she moved on a year later I pretended to be upset, but in reality I was glad. Though back then I really didn't know why. Until I was about 14, I admitted to myself I might be gay - but even then I hoped it was a matter of finding the right girlfriend and my feelings would go away. I forced myself to date girls from school and when I was 16 I even slept with a few of them. I've always loved women but I'm not attracted to them and I remember my brain telling me 'you will like it', but going through the motions during sex felt like torture. I'm one of the only men I know who was pleased to discover that one of my teenage girlfriends was cheating on me – it felt as though her secret boyfriend was doing me a favour. It was when I was 18 that I started tentatively exploring being with men. By then I was studying an access course to get into university and become a paramedic – something I'd longed to do after helping to care for my grandfather in his later years. The course was based in Weymouth but other students lived in Bournemouth so I'd socialise there, away from the eyes of the traveller community. I felt safe that I wouldn't be found out. 10 10 Kissing a man for the first time at 18 was the defining moment that put me on the path to where I am now. Filled with terror But I was filled with terror. There were no gay gypsy role models I could look up to, no one I could confide in. It was meeting Andy, now 30, through friends that gave me the impetus to 'come out'. I was 21 and he was 18 and I fell in love and trusted him and knew he'd support me through the inevitable turmoil. It was exhausting hiding him from my family and in 2013, six months after we started seeing each other, I confided in my aunt. She was like a second mum so when she asked me why I was so miserable I blurted out the truth. Her response was incredible and beyond unexpected – she told me that as long as Andy made me happy that was what mattered. But she also said it was a secret too big to keep and she offered to break the news to my mum - her sister - for me. While they were talking I packed my bags, shaking with anxiety as I stuffed my clothes into four bin bags, so convinced I couldn't stay. Mum returned from my aunt's house shocked and crying which made me feel both guilty and sad. She told me she loved me but needed space. I went to live with Andy in Bournemouth and I never went back to the traveller site. There was gossip, and one person even refused to share my drink in case he 'caught' being gay. That comment made me more determined than ever to succeed. I avoided traveller gatherings for two years because I didn't want to cope with any other comments. Mum didn't really talk to me for three months – I understood, she had to wrap her head around it and she was so worried for me and how my life would play out. I knew only too well how hard it was for her to grasp – in some travelling communities men are forced into marriage rather than coming out and I was worried that the whole community would turn not only on me, but on my mum too. I didn't fear physical attacks, but I didn't want to be shunned either. During the months that followed I concentrated on my relationship with Andy. He was so supportive and reassuring and I focused on my studies and ambition to become a paramedic. It's terrifying breaking out from what's normal in your family. Though I was happy with Andy, our happiness was tainted because I felt I was letting everyone down. However as with so many things, time was a great healer. 'They watch me' Gradually, mum and I started talking again and while it took a couple of years for her to accept Andrew into her heart, she now refers to him as her 'second son'. I always say being a traveller is like being a member of the Royal Family - both are steeped in tradition and rules. It's more acceptable to get a girl pregnant at 15 in my community than come out as gay. I knew mum really accepted who I am seven years ago. Andy, an electrician, and I bought a four-bedroom house in Bournemouth and she moved in with us. Though she now accepts us fully and the three of us still share the same house we are careful when we mix with the community at weddings and funerals. I wouldn't dream of kissing or holding hands with Andy because I know it would make people feel uncomfortable and in turn I would feel the same. And I accept that – I don't blame them, it's hard to let go of your 'normal' and adjust. Fellow guests sometimes look at me with curiosity as if I've sprung two heads and a tail - they watch me all the time. After Andy proposed on a beach in Gran Canaria in 2013 we finally married in September 2022. We decided to go abroad to Cyprus to combine a wedding and a holiday. We invited over a hundred guests but only 60 came - 15 from the travelling community. I think some genuinely couldn't afford it but I'm sure others didn't feel comfortable - but that's OK. I wonder if subconsciously I went abroad as I was worried people wouldn't join us. Being a dad is something I've always wanted. Two years ago we adopted four children and we're in the process of adopting two more – so at least I'm going to conform with the gypsy community that way, because they too love a big family. Life is chaotic, but wonderful. I look back on that scared, confused young boy who was terrified he'd never fit in and I wish I could tell him how amazing his life would turn out to be. 10 10

Dismay as Derbyshire council removes Pride flag after Christians complain
Dismay as Derbyshire council removes Pride flag after Christians complain

The Guardian

time2 days ago

  • The Guardian

Dismay as Derbyshire council removes Pride flag after Christians complain

The spa town of Matlock in the Peak District is known for the joyful flags adorning its historical high street. The St George's Cross, the union flag, the Derbyshire county flag and the Pride flag flutter brightly above the town's many independent businesses. That was until a row erupted that has divided the town, after the mysterious disappearance of a Pride flag turned out to be the work of the very council that had installed it. Townspeople and the local MP are calling for its return after a LGBTQ+ standard was removed in a 'sly little way' following complaints from some Christians. Kate Bond, who lives in the Derbyshire town, said she had donated £150 to the council to refresh the flags as they had become tatty over time. 'They were such a mess because they were really old and dirty,' she said. Only the St George's Cross and the union flag had previously been flown, so when the new flags went up on the high street last week she was delighted to see the addition of the Derbyshire flag and the Pride flag, following a decision by the 11 members of Matlock town council. 'I thought it was amazing to be honest. I thought, 'Oh that's brilliant. How nice.' I was just thinking it looked really good,' she said. When a Pride flag disappeared, she thought it might be the work of lone homophobes – which has happened in various towns and cities in the UK – and was shocked to discover the council had done it, appearing to bow to pressure from a homophobic minority. 'It's crazy. You just can't believe it. More than anything, what I'm bothered about is the fact that it's happened without anybody knowing about it. This sly little way it's been done, it's wrong somehow. If it's your idea to put them up, stand by it,' she said. It is not clear how many people complained but one was Cornerstone Bookshop, run by a Christian charity, which said it was 'grateful for the speedy removal' of the Pride flag. Judy Crook, who runs the bookshop, told the Guardian that, though as 'a point of basic Christian belief, we welcome everybody', they did not want to promote homosexuality and 'we're not happy with the gay rights situation'. 'We have to respect other people's views. But we didn't want the flag flying outside our shop.' In a statement, the bookshop added: 'Fortunately, we are blessed in this country with freedom of conscience and freedom of religion legislation, enshrined in the Equality Act of 2010 which allows religion or belief as a protected characteristic. We are therefore very grateful for the speedy removal of this flag when we raised our concern to the council.' Bond, who is gay, responded: 'You can't do anything about homophobes. They're going to be in the world. So my complaint really isn't with [Crook], it's the fact that the council have agreed to it. There's obviously some people in Matlock, and perhaps just generally, that have more power than others.' The council clerk, Simon Hosmer, said: 'We removed the flag due to a strong belief someone would put themselves in danger by removing it themselves. As a town council we can ill afford damage to property let alone damage to a person that we may be liable for. 'A lot of the local community are rightly upset that this has happened. It may look to people that we have bowed under the pressure of a single complaint. That is simply not the case.' He said more Pride flags had been ordered, despite the wider Derbyshire county council, now led by Reform UK, 'wanting only union flags on public buildings'. Reform, which won a majority in the May local election, has banned the LGBTQ flag from the town hall in Matlock, along with the Ukrainian flag. The Guardian understands the council has since done a U-turn on the Ukrainian flag ban. The new administration has also introduced Christian prayer at the start of its meetings, with a Reform councillor, the group whip Dan Price, saying the UK was a 'Christian country'.

Milton Keynes organisation wants to raise funds for LGBTQ groups
Milton Keynes organisation wants to raise funds for LGBTQ groups

BBC News

time4 days ago

  • BBC News

Milton Keynes organisation wants to raise funds for LGBTQ groups

A non-profit organisation is calling on the community it serves to help raise "vital funds" to help inclusion, visibility, safety, and wellbeing for LGBTQ+ people in a Milton Keynes Community Foundation said it hoped its new Rainbow Fund would provide grants to local groups, voluntary organisations and Roberts said the fund would prioritise groups that included people who faced "multiple forms of discrimination".The foundation said it would match-fund the first £25,000 of donations. "People are really working for more visibility for these issues so I am really confident that people in the community will step up and support the fund," said Ms foundation's previous work has included funded transgender awareness training for care home staff with the Q:alliance charity, and supporting British sign language interpreters and providing braille materials for the Milton Keynes Pride money donated, such as by local businesses and organisations, could also be used to support people who are neurodivergent, for refugee communities, and to help improve mental and sexual health."We know Milton Keynes is a really beautifully diverse place to live, but members of the LGBTQ+ community still face discrimination in our area," added Ms Roberts."If we invest in this community, it already has the tools and it knows how to lift each other up and to create safety and joy and new experiences."The fund has been launched along with an Our City, Our Story campaign, to celebrate the history of LGBTQ+ movements in Milton Keynes, which included the Campaign for Homosexual Equality group in Wolverton in the 1970s. Roberts added: "This fund is for the community to tell us, what more do we need"Do we need book clubs? Do we need clubs for couples who want to become parents? Do we need more safe spaces? Do we need arts and culture projects?" Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

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