Gay prom gives a second chance to senior citizens
A prom for gay senior citizens last weekend offered a rite of passage they couldn’t have when they were younger.
Even now, several of the promgoers were still in the closet and wouldn’t give their names. At the dance, they said, they could be free. But not outside.
The prom started promptly at 5:30 p.m., but by 5, the line of people — some in tuxedos (both men and women), others in jeans — stretched half a block.
The promgoers walked on a red carpet as they entered the patio where a catered meal awaited. The volunteers wore flight attendant uniforms to match the theme, “Come Fly with Me.” The Beach Boys — “Wouldn’t it be nice to live together / In the kind of world where we belong” — floated out over the loudspeaker.
A Lucille Ball impersonator with a high-pitched voice led the crowd -- including a woman pushing a walker -- in a conga line to the dance floor. One man wore a beaded necklace with the equality symbol and fanned his face with a paper AARP fan.
“Welcome to Freedom Airlines!” an emcee shouted as the partygoers found their seats at tables decorated with rainbow flags.
For his high school prom in 1942, Robert Clement bought a white orchid corsage in a fancy plastic box.
He gave it to a female staff member who organized the dance. Others would think it was a kind gesture, that he was just a considerate young man. In truth, Clement didn’t have anyone else to give it to.
He liked boys. And he couldn’t take a boy to the prom, especially not seven decades ago in a small town in Pennsylvania.
“Proms are a rite of passage,” Clement said. “A heterosexual rite of passage.... But it wasn’t mine.”
Last weekend, just one day after gay marriage became legal once more in California, Clement found himself getting dressed up for the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center’s senior prom.
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