Filling a long overdue need to provide the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community more retirement options, Fountaingrove Lodge, the nation’s first full-service LGBT retirement community to offer luxury living and continuing care services, will officially open on Wednesday, November 20. Regional elected officials and LGBT leaders will join award-winning developer Oakmont Senior Living to celebrate the grand opening of the 10-acre retirement campus located in Santa Rosa, just north of San Francisco.

A ribbon cutting ceremony led by the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce will be held at 4:45 p.m., which will be followed by a photo opportunity with legislators from Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Windsor, and Sonoma County.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

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Photo by Lynn Willis

BY DIANE ROSEN
Tagg Magazine

You know the routine. You’re meeting people for the first time. You say hi and nod. And then, the beautiful stranger who you just met asks you The Question: “What do you do?”

You don’t have a quick-and-easy answer because nowadays, you’re retired, and you don’t have a job title with a company like you did when you worked for a living. You do things, but now, they’re just not associated with a full-time job. You do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it.

Read more at TaggMagazine.com

Tagg Magazine is a print and online resource for LBT women in the DC Metropolitan and Rehoboth, DE areas.

The post ‘What do you do?’: Coming out as a retiree first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Retirement is one of our biggest financial challenges for three reasons:

1. The sum we have to save for retirement is bigger than for any other financial goal.
2. When we prioritize our desires, retirement never wins on urgency, making it easy to keep putting off.
3. Saving for retirement is the financial equivalent of an ultramarathon. (Any of you run an ultramarathon, recently?) When saving to buy a house or to pay for your child’s college education, you might save for five or 15 years, but for retirement, you have to save decade over decade.

If just reading that list is making you sweat, we understand.

According to a nationwide survey conducted by LearnVest and Chase Blueprint, Americans’ number one financial worry is whether or not we’ll be able to save enough for retirement. About one-third of men and women cite that as their top concern over, for instance, paying down debt, having enough money to live comfortably and having enough to provide for their children.

Read more at LearnVest

LearnVest is the leading personal finance site for women. Our free Money Center will help you create a budget. Our free boot camps will help you take control of your money, cut your costs or get out of debt. And our premium financial plans — managed by LearnVest Certified Financial Planners — can help you chart a course for the future you want.

The post 11 biggest retirement lies we tell ourselves first appeared on Lesbian.com.

A typical casita at Birds of a Feather.

BY SID MARCH
Lesbian.com

What better place to settle in for your golden years than the Land of Enchantment? Red mesas rise into impossibly blue skies. The perpetually sunny weather gives way to cool nights and even the occasional snow. A land of four glorious seasons, it’s hospitable and welcoming, not to mention mind-bendingly beautiful. These are just some of the reasons that Bonnie McGowan chose New Mexico as the home for Birds of a Feather, close to 20 years ago.

Birds of a Feather is a gay and lesbian resort community located on 160 peaceful acres of rural land with a three-sixty view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The nearest urban mecca is a village of less than 2,000. Although serenely remote and surrounded by the New Mexico National Forest Area, the homesteads are situated barely 90 minutes from an international airport in Albuquerque, a blink away from medical services and basic necessities in the nearby community of Pecos, and just half hour from the cultural delight that is gay-friendly Santa Fe and its host of restaurants, theatres, and art galleries. Everything you can imagine is within arm’s reach.

McGowan touts Birds of a Feather as a place where gay and lesbian retirees – and not-so-retirees – who want a sustainable, warm, accepting community, can spend their mature years with minimal concern about intolerant neighbors or latent (and sometimes blatant) homophobia. Although the community specifically invites gays and lesbians, all are technically welcome. “We support diversity,” she says, relaying a story about a straight couple and a gay male couple that lived in the same apartment building in Los Angeles some 20 years ago. Now nearing retirement age, and still sharing the bond they made as neighbors, they’re seeking out a community of like-minded people where they can retire side by side. The couples approached McGowan about the possibility of the straight couple joining their gay friends at Birds of a Feather. Her response? “Absolutely!” Birds of a Feather will accept residents who are gay, lesbian, trans, straight, queer, and beyond. It’s a non-issue to McGowan as long as any non-LGBTQ residents are allies of the community.

A gay and lesbian oriented retirement happy space sounds almost too amazing to be true. It’s easy to imagine an isolated bubble of rainbow retirees, singing Lady Gaga (or k.d. Lang? Elton?) while playing checkers and chasing around countless grand-puppies. The reality, however, is bigger and better. Residents of Birds of a Feather have become an integral part of the Pecos community at large, volunteering for local fund drives, sitting on the board of directors at the medical center, helping run a food bank, volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and providing support for local businesses. This positive action and visibility is key for the promotion of tolerance and acceptance. “It’s helpful to see that gays and lesbians are pretty darn normal.” McGowan laughs.

McGowan and her partner Lisa at Birds of a Feather. The pair met “in my bedroom” McGowan laughs, while Lisa was touring the community.

McGowan started developing her concept nearly 30 years ago. Working as an investment banker and in the public defender’s office unwittingly prepared her for both the legal and financial aspects of building a boutique community from the ground up. It’s a process that involves community approval, site plans, business plans, financial projections, lots of paperwork, and huge creative visions. She conducted online surveys and engaged focus groups to find out what people wanted, where they wanted it, and how they wanted it done– and she did it.

There are a mere handful of others who have created communities that specifically welcome LGBTQ people of retirement age. As the Baby Boomers become grandparents, the demand for communities for the 55+ set and assisted living facilities is likely to substantially increase; it’s just a matter of numbers. In the US, where same-sex marital rights are still limited, aging gays and lesbians often face grave prospects when they are in the times of greatest need. We have all heard horror stories of elderly lesbian couples being assigned to separate rooms in the same facility, bedridden and unable to visit each other, of life-partners disallowed hospital visitation in their final days; beyond devastating, it is heartbreaking. Communities like McGowan’s seek to help alleviate this pain by creating safe spaces for LGBTQ couples and ensuring the closet door is left wide, wide open. Birds of a Feather hopes to eventually provide medical resources, transport vans, and/or assisted living facilities when more residents have the need, so people can stay comfortable in their homes and the community for the absolute maximum duration.

So, what makes Birds of a Feather so appealing to its residents? People can stay in a neighborhood built for them, specifically, with “the support of friends, neighbors, partners, and what we call ‘chosen family’,” McGowan says. Residents become a tight knit group. “Until we reach a point in society where my partner and I can walk down the street holding hands in [any] community and feel safe, there is still a need for this,” McGowan says, commiserating with me despite the almost 40 years between us. Even if we come to the forefront of progress and an increasingly hospitable environment toward LGBTQ people develops, McGowan is sure communities like hers will still be popular: “There will always be a need, or desire, for people to be able to live with [other] people that have had similar life experiences.”

And this, so far, has been true. Though expansion has slowed through the economic downturn and crash, McGowan isn’t giving up. The community is viable and growing, albeit a little slowly. McGowan and her partner, Lisa, have started designing some smaller, more affordable homes, as small as 1000 square feet, to make the community more accessible. With the green design of eco-nests, McGowan’s desire to preserve nature as best as possible (the majority of the utilities have been wired underground to prevent aesthetic interference with scenery and they use special advanced nitrate septic systems to avoid polluting the ground water), and the spiritually profound location (New Mexico is prime real estate for a vision quest), buying into the community isn’t exactly cheap — but for many, it is worth it.

Members purchase their lot and work with approved designers to customize their homestead. Birds of a Feather offers a variety of sizes and floor plans to accommodate different lifestyles and needs. They’re slated to start Phase II of production with new types of homes available: who says the real estate market is at a stand still? Still, with the recent bankruptcies of several assisted living facilities and comparable communities, potential buyers have expressed concern. Defiant in the face of any adversity, McGowan securely insists, “we’re not going anywhere!” as she lists lots that are purchased, builds that are scheduled to start in the spring, and forward motion with a homeowner’s association. It sounds like Birds of a Feather is doing just fine.

Visit Birds of a Feather to learn more about the community.

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