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This is how I wanted to have our children call non-family. Throughout history, elders have served as beloved pathfinders, beckoning us to enter the province of old age in anticipation of growing strength and usefulness to society.”

We invite you to join us as we walk the Way Of The Gay Elder.

The Gay Elder Circle

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Allen Page

ALLEN PAGE is an Intuitive Guide, Channel and Medium offering…

John Ruggles

JOHN RUGGLES is a fourth generation California native and a…

Fred Wilkey, EdD

FRED WILKEY, EdD, is a clinical psychologist with over 40…

Where and when I grew up (Virginia, 1960s), unrelated adults were called one of three possibilities: Mr/s.

The bigger question may be whether a village can be created that can truly accept and receive them. Besides, there’s a fair amount of unrequited attraction among his characters, and all of the sexually charged scenes, whether consummated or not, are really about character. Though much of gay life after Stonewall is defined by sexual liberation, Gambone is looking for a broader kind of fulfillment.

Indeed, the stories in this collection are tied together by more than just age, orientation, and proximity to the South End.

Religion often comes into play, as does social striving and the effects of gentrification. Click here to sign in or get access.

Stories of an Old (Gay) Man

How’s that for a clickbait title? Zigzag is his second short-story collection (after The Language We Use Up Here), and he has also written a novel (Beijing) and some notable nonfiction: Something Inside: Conversations with Gay Fiction Writers;Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans; and a remarkable memoir, As Far as I Can Tell: Finding My Father in World War II, which I reviewed in the Provincetown Independent in 2021.

To tears and confessions and reassurances, of course, but the journey in all of Gambone’s stories is full of both predictable outcomes and startling surprises.

There’s a fair amount of gay male sex, too, some of it explicit, and if that’s a red flag for you as a reader, then Zigzag may not be easy to take.

grandpas gay

He often retires, disappears or is discarded. I really don't need any either physical or mental connections. We come from a wide range of backgrounds and are united in our primary purpose of being useful to younger gay men and of service to the gay and larger community.

A healthy and thriving community honors ancestors, needs elders, depends on adults and invites youth.

Guy wanted have them do it the barbaric, I mean modern, way. I suggested Grandpa for me and Grandad for Guy. Well, apparently, that just wouldn’t work. An older (senior citizen, old person, golden oldy and so forth) is often a person who celebrates a birthday each year and waits for death with little sense of a larger role for himself in the community.

First names for everyone! But somehow, their remarkable spirits allowed them to persevere and “succeed” in America,” Gross says. 

“Given half a chance, the youth will take their steps and trust the river of life. And I told them the whole tragedy of my life, and they understood what happened to me.

“Zigzag,” the titular final story, corrals characters from several other stories in the book into an art gallery opening reception in Dorchester. Their regrets, yearnings, fears, and satisfactions are unique, because each person’s experience growing up with the shame of being queer and, as an adult, navigating the pitfalls of sexuality and romance, shapes the individual’s worldview in old age.

Which brings me to Zigzag, Philip Gambone’s marvelous new short story collection about aging gay men in the Boston area, particularly white men who spent their formative years in the South End.

The book makes it clear that personal liberation is a lifelong and universal pursuit.

Such wisdom might seem obvious, and it may elicit an unsympathetic “tut-tut” by those fed up with white male privilege. The CIRCLE shows respect for both elders and olders.

Roshi Joan Halifax, noted elder, shaman and Buddhist teacher, reflected the GAY ELDER CIRCLE’s understanding when she stated:

“The wisdom that we need to solve our problems lies encoded in the depths of our unconscious minds—but it must be evoked by elders who reveal our potential.

They came of age in a world where it was possible to love openly, keep one’s job, and even get married, much like their straight counterparts.