Award-winning Documentary About LGBT Aging to Be Presented Oct. 7

GREENFIELD — Hospice of Franklin County, in collaboration with Greenfield Community College’s Pride Alliance and the National Center for Death Education, will present a screening of the film Gen Silent on Wednesday, Oct. 7 from 8 to 10 a.m. at the GCC Dining Commons.

A panel discussion facilitated by Diane Moran, executive director of the National Center of Death Education, will follow the movie. There is no charge for attendance; however, registration is required by calling (413) 774-2400. CEUs for nurses and social workers will be available for a fee.

Gen Silent is the critically acclaimed documentary from filmmaker Stu Maddux that asks six LGBT seniors if they will hide their friends, their spouses, and their entire lives to survive in the healthcare system. Their surprising decisions are captured through intimate access to their day-to-day lives over the course of a year. Unlike any film before, Gen Silent startlingly uncovers how oppression in the years before Stonewall now affects older lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people with fear and isolation.

Many who won the first civil-rights victories for generations to come are now dying prematurely because they are reluctant to ask for help and have too few friends or family to care for them. Gen Silent shows the disparity in the quality of paid caregiving from mainstream care facilities committed to making their LGBT residents safe and happy, to places where LGBT elders face discrimination by staff and bullying by other seniors. As viewers see the challenges that these men and women face, they are offered new hope as each person crosses paths with impassioned people trying to change LGBT aging for the better.

For more information, contact Hospice of Franklin County at (413) 774-2400 or visit www.hospicefc.org.