By ERIK SCHUCKERS

In 2020, high on the receipt of my first AARP card, I approached Kit Ayars and Jeanne Marie Laskas at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Creativity with an idea: a program geared to LGBTQ folks age 50+ that would focus on reading and writing about our lives.

Us “elders” were born into social, medical and legal landscapes much different from those that exist today: homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder, LGBTQ discrimination in employment and housing was both common and legal, same-sex marriage was a nearly inconceivable fantasy, and AIDS/HIV was regarded as a death sentence. Trans and bi folks, and people of color, were often marginalized or outright erased in both the queer and non-queer communities.

I learned about AIDS at the same time

I learned how lesbians and gay

men

are different

— Rowan Flamm

“In Our Own Write,” which launched with a grant from Pitt’s Year of Community in 2021, was designed to bring together queer elders, many with no previous writing experience, to share, preserve, and learn to communicate our experiences. Every week, we met to discuss writing by contemporary LGBTQ writers and to workshop our own. We invited accomplished guest writers, including Joy Ladin, Lesléa Newman, Jubi Arriola-Headley, and Pitt’s own Jeff Oaks, for readings and discussions. And session by session, we built a community.

With the support of the Center for Creativity, “In Our Own Write” grew through three annual iterations. The University Library System was excited to archive our annual chapbooks, to make them available to a wider community. Each new year saw a mix of returning students and new participants eager to tell their stories. And I heard that while a dedicated space for elders was important, as we are often left out of LGBTQ programming that tends to skew younger, there was also a need and desire for intergenerational communication.

And with a 2024 grant from Pitt’s Year of Discourse and Dialogue, “Writing GenQ” was born.

What’s it like, L asks about gender dysphoria

Like wearing a ball gown to a boxing match, I say

— Shannon Fink

“Writing GenQ” brought together LGBTQ+ folks from Pitt undergraduates to retirees. In its pilot iteration, we read and wrote around two topics identified by participants: body and community. Our work both celebrated our differences and identified shared struggles and triumphs — while the landscapes have changed, our journeys bear unmistakable similarities.

One thing that came through clearly in working with our first “Writing GenQ” cohort is that younger and older folks alike are anxious about communicating, about the language we use to convey our experiences. We want to honor each other’s lives and identities, and are often afraid to ask questions or interrogate our vocabularies.

What we discovered together is that intention is everything. One of the most important elements of intergenerational communication is generosity, the understanding that learning goes both ways. Creativity relies on the ability to assimilate the past while taking stock of the present and looking ahead to the future. This is also the dynamic of community.

But you touched me like I was an artifact

Aged and filled with stories and complete in and of myself

You touched me like you wanted to take me in.

— Silas M. Switzer

As queer folks, we are acutely aware that our history is constantly endangered; our stories, like our bodies, subject to censorship and violence and erasure. Our books are removed from libraries, our identities made literally unspeakable in classrooms. Hate groups disguised as political organizations manipulate fear and lies to encourage a violence that’s more than just rhetorical.

But we also know that connection and creation are intimately linked, and that these are sustainable resources, not only tools of survival, but sources of joy. We are—always have been, always will be—filled with stories. And sharing them is an act of generation and generosity that will keep us moving into the future that we make together.

Quotes by works from In Our Own Write/Writing GenQ participants.

Erik Schuckers is the C4C manager of programming and communications. His forthcoming book of poetry is Pretty Boys in Trouble.