Local Advocate Speaks Up for Those Who Can’t-Gen Silent
This Friday, the Democratic Club will be hearing from Juli Stratton, a longtime LGBTQ advocate. Juli is the owner and operator of Stratton Consulting and serves as the Executive Director for the North Idaho Pride Alliance, a non-profit organization that focuses on the LGBTQ+ community organizing, education, and advocacy.
Despite advances for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people in recent years, LGBT older adults still worry about feeling forced back into the closet to receive the care they need. Commonly, living in long-term care homes, receiving in-home care service or even attending functions at a senior community center, LGBT elders face a wall of assumptions about who they are and the lives they have led. We will watch a portion of the documentary “Gen Silent” from award-winning director and documentary filmmaker Stu Maddux. Maddux asks six LGBT seniors if they will hide their lives to survive. They put a face on what experts in the film call an epidemic: gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender seniors so afraid of discrimination, or worse, in long-term/health care that many go back into the closet. And, their surprising decisions are captured through intimate access to their day-to-day lives over the course of a year in Boston, Massachusetts.
In addition to working with the North Idaho Pride Alliance, Juli serves as adjunct faculty for the School of Social Work at Eastern Washington University and is a Leadership Action Team member for the Pride Foundation. Juli is the primary LGBTQ+ educator and trainer in North Idaho and has presented to health care and mental health providers, social workers, public health professionals, social work students, criminal justice professionals, and various community groups. Juli holds a Master’s degree in Counseling and Community Services from the University of Illinois.
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