By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

“Throughout our community, something is happening,” said Phil Hannema, of the Chicago chapter of the Prime Timers, an organization for gay and bisexual seniors.

He said the Prime Timers’ membership numbers have been climbing recently. As of the beginning of March, they had just over 200 members, according to Hannema, who’s been with the group for four or five years. There is some concern, in fact, that the group might outgrow Ann Sather Restaurant, the location of its monthly dinner.

“We’re growing up a great deal,” said Hannema, who thinks the membership increase is because “the Baby Boomers are coming along (now). Even on our board, we’re starting to see some younger members. There’s a lot of new energy coming in.”

The organization is affiliated with Prime Timers Worldwide, which has about 70 chapters.

For some older gay men, including many who are without families, finding people they share a sense of community with is difficult. But Prime Timers schedules a number of social events each month. Besides the Ann Sather gatherings on the second Sunday of each month, they have weekly outings to performances at the Chicago Cultural Center and host a number of other events, such as card games, potlucks and neighborhood dine-arounds.

In recent months, some members have even had naturist gatherings.

“Even five or six years ago, you wouldn’t think of doing something like (that),” Hannema said.

Prime Timers also affords its members a chance to keep in touch with one another, especially if they do not have family members nearby. The group, for example, sends out email alerts if someone gets sick.

Community support is especially important as gay seniors confront medical issues—they are often exposed to societal stigma because community facilities and institutions can be less adept in meeting the needs of their GLBT clients.

“When they go into nursing homes, they (often) have to go into the closet,” Hannema said, remembering a visit to an acquaintance in a senior living facility who would ask his friends to leave when people came in to clean his room. Hannema added that the issue will become even more pronounced as more and more gay Baby Boomers age and many men with HIV/AIDS enter assisted living facilities.

“These men are going to go into homes and (the homes) won’t know what to do with them,” he said.

Many in the organization have lived through some harsh experiences, so there is often a concern about respecting privacy. Pointing to the Prime Timer’s directory, wherein several members are denoted by first names and last initials, Hannema said, “When people went out to the bars, they didn’t use last names.”

“We’ve had some members who wouldn’t want their last name used,” he added. “Some even used aliases that they used in the bars.”

Hannema, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 30 years before retiring, is attempting to piece together a history of the Prime Timers, which he admits is quite difficult—few who were there at the group’s inception are still around. It grew out of a Professionals Over 30 group that formed in 1977 and, before that, may have been a group of gay psychologists, Hannema said. The organization was chartered as the Prime Timers in 1979.

Prime Timers is not the only community organization serving gay seniors locally. Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders also meets regularly at The John Baran Senior Center, Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St.

For information on Prime Timers call (312) 409-1590 or visit the group’s website at www.primetimersww.org/chicago.