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Senior Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Befriending
and Support Service
Why the name 'Friends of Dorothy'?
"The term 'friend of Dorothy' dates back to the 20th Century when saying
at a social gathering that another man was a "friend of Dorothy" was a
euphemism used for discussing sexual orientation without other people
knowing". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_of_Dorothy).
The name Friends of Dorothy Project therefore was chosen to pay tribute to
the cultural history of part of the older LGBT community. It serves to
remind us of the social anxieties many LGBT people experienced and
experience today, and the strategies many developed to allow their sex and
gendered identity flourish in the face of oppression, adversity and fear.
Background
The Friends of Dorothy Project emerged as a result of a study, by Age
Concern (2006) A Welcome on the Mat that focused on the health and social
welfare needs of older LGBT people in the Preston and South Ribble area
who are marginalised or isolated because of issues around sexual
orientation and gender variance. This study highlighted different levels
of ‘needs’ and social anxieties within an older LGBT population that may
have the potential of rendering existing services beyond their reach.
Researchers in Age Concern’s study acknowledged the background of many
older LGBT people who have lived through decades of institutional
oppression.
To recap, this was a time when legislation criminalised their
kind and supported a social order that stigmatised and excluded them
solely on their sexed and gendered difference, systematically stripping
them of their emergent sexed and gendered identity. They recognised many
older people in the community are living with the effects of that social
order and who may be carrying with them levels of ‘internalised
oppression’ today.
Whilst some may be ‘out and proud’ some may have chosen
to remain in ‘the closet’, either way there may be some aspect of their
lives that remain personal to themselves regarding their sex and gender
and would wish to remain private. Whilst many individuals may have
developed effective strategies to address these issues in their younger
life, things may be different and change when health and social welfare
professionals have a greater role to play in their everyday lives when
they are older and perhaps become infirm. The work highlighted continuing
anxieties relating to issues of sex and gender when older LGBT people
interact with others including health and social welfare professionals and
services.
Age Concern was also concerned with the accessibility of services and to
what extent existing services are able to provide appropriate services for
the complex and changing needs of these individuals in society. Their work
signalled a need for organisations to review their approach and consider
to what extent policies and practice are organised around hetero-normative
assumptions that may limit the extent individuals within the LGBT
community are able to talk of their life experiences and personal ‘needs’.
The Friends of Dorothy Project commenced on September 2007 to provide
befriending and support services that have the capacity to recognise and
respond to deeper levels of ‘needs’ of an older LGBT community within
Preston and South Ribble area. It is also concerned with working alongside
established LGBT groups guiding policy development and practice within
organisations into delivering more appropriate services that are sensitive
to needs of the LGBT community, in line with Age Concern’s mission
statement, to help make life a fulfilling and enjoyable experience for all
older people.
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