CONTACTAbout UsCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2025 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
I share my birth date with my friend Joel Grey. On our birthday, April 11th, "Joel Grey's New York," an exhibit of his brilliant photographs of our beloved city, opened at the Museum of the City of New York. He is currently starring in a revival of Anything Goes, and directing a production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart that will also open on Broadway this month. Not bad for a guy who's 79!
Now that I am actually 60, I'm no longer afraid of being 60. I celebrated for a week: lunch, brunch, dinner, theatre, sex, work, party for 90 people, more lunch, dinner. I'd been writing about this milestone for a full year. I'd been thinking about it for far longer.
I woke up the day after and...oh, right, turning 60 isn't a big deal. The meaning of the number was an idea, a story I'd been told and bought into and was telling myself--that this birthday would matter, that I'd be changed irrevocably.
No. I'm just a day older--and I can no longer die "tragically young."
I remain grateful for having been on the planet for 60 years, for the perspective that comes from living history, not just studying it as I did at college. But Joel's life reminds me that I might just have another chapter or two ahead. What's next?
One section of Joel's exhibit is a wall-size time line of his career. He's had quite a ride: nightclubs, theater, movies, TV, concerts, experimental theatre, photography--picking up an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy along the way. Joel is one of my inspirations. He exemplifies the wisdom of happiness: Appreciate the past--and be truly engaged in the present.
Aging with grace means finding what one is doing now the most interesting thing in one's already interesting life. I have had some pretty heady experiences as a performer, a teacher, a shrink, and now as a writer. My history is a platform, yet I am most excited about my current projects: writing this column and continuing to work face-to-face with clients, looking for the next space to buy and design, discovering my next relationship--exploring, as of yet, unrealized ambitions.
Even though I have already accomplished my number one goal: to have that interesting life with some meaning to myself and, I hope, to others, I am certainly not writing my obit. I am summing up six decades as I roll up my sleeves and revel in the great fortune of entering my seventh decade in good health, engaged and curious about what is coming and how I can meet it in the most creative way.
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
31 Period Films of Lesbians and Bi Women in Love That Will Take You Back
December 09 2024 1:00 PM
18 of the most batsh*t things N.C. Republican governor candidate Mark Robinson has said
October 30 2024 11:06 AM
True
After 20 years, and after tonight, Obama will no longer be the Democrats' top star
August 20 2024 12:28 PM
Trump ally Laura Loomer goes after Lindsey Graham: ‘We all know you’re gay’
September 13 2024 2:28 PM
These 15 major companies caved to the far right and stopped DEI programs
January 24 2025 1:11 PM
True
Latest Stories
No LGB without the T — queer community protests Trump's transgender erasure at Stonewall
February 14 2025 6:30 PM
Why LGBTQ+ groups are angry at RFK Jr.'s confirmation
February 14 2025 5:26 PM
Ohio bill would ban ejaculation without intent to conceive — with exceptions for LGBTQ+ people
February 14 2025 4:38 PM
Trump is ‘dangerously’ conflating gender-affirming care with a human rights violation
February 14 2025 12:42 PM
White House Correspondents' Association president Eugene Daniels blasts decision to block AP journalists
February 14 2025 11:39 AM
True
'Transgender' references erased from Stonewall National Monument website
February 14 2025 9:48 AM
From PEPFAR to peril, what happens when lifelines are cut?
February 14 2025 7:00 AM
Worcester: sanctuary city for the transgender community
February 13 2025 6:27 PM
Blame Mitch McConnell if you’re scared and angry
February 13 2025 5:06 PM
Federal judge orders restoration of health agency web pages
February 13 2025 5:02 PM
Kennedy Center scrubs LGBTQ+ Pride concert after Donald Trump takeover
February 13 2025 4:49 PM
BREAKING: Federal judge blocks Trump’s gender-affirming care ban for minors
February 13 2025 4:34 PM
These Blue states are making it easier for transgender people to update their documents
February 13 2025 12:09 PM
These are not ordinary times: How the Human Rights Campaign plans to move forward
February 13 2025 12:01 PM