How We Got Started

By Kris Johnson and Mary Kidd
October 31, 2003

The seed for Gay & Gray began in the fall of 2000 at a lesbian brunch group which meets in Evergreen, Colorado. Several of us had been talking about getting older and what we might need in the future. Two of our members were in their late 70s and in failing health, which made the issue even more pressing. We decided to have a meeting to talk about the issue and possibly get some networking going in the mountain area.

On 11-11-00, a group of about 15-20 of us met at the Senior Resource Center in Evergreen. As we talked, it quickly became apparent that we did not have a shared vision of what we wanted in our elder years. So we decided to do a survey to help identify what folks wanted with the ultimate goal of facilitating those with similar visions getting together to begin creating their desires. Six of us met at the home of Donna and Sumitra Redwing shortly thereafter and developed a survey that we sent out to approximately 300 women. Approximately 100 surveys were returned and we tabulated the results in March of 2001.

Donna Redwing subsequently took that survey and formed a committee for the purpose of putting together a conference on aging for the GLBT community. The committee consisted of representatives of various local agencies and other interested persons and broadened the focus from women only to the larger GLBT community. The committee decided we would be called Gay and Gray, and as it turned out that that name was already taken elsewhere in the country, we became Gay and Gray in the West.

Our first event was a town hall meeting (also referred to as an aging symposium) held on Oct. 27, 2001, in Denver, Colorado. We were very encouraged by the turnout of almost 100 people for that meeting and the general interest in aging issues for our community. With the ideas generated at the symposium, we developed the Gay and Gray in the West 1st Annual Conference held on June 1, 2002, at the Executive Tower Hotel in Denver. With 280 participants, it was a huge success. The feedback we received from the conference was very positive, so we formed another steering committee and created the 2nd Annual Gay and Gray Conference, held on October 25, 2003, at the Adams Mark Hotel in Denver.

At present, Gay and Gray in the West continues to be its own grassroots organization, although we partner with The Center in putting on the conferences. We are looking forward to continuing our work in the area of aging issues for our community.