Nothing scheduled yet for 2012 but here’s a look at what I did in 2011:
The Right Side of Forty: Workshops to Increase Happiness for Gay Men as You Get Older
2011 calendar of speaking engagements.
Saturday February 26, 2011 – 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Gay & Lesbian Center – Los Angeles, CA. The Village at Ed Gould Plaza. 1125 N. McCadden Place, Los Angeles, CA 90038. Co-sponsored by The Center’s Learning Curve Adult Education Program and The Center’s Senior Services Program. Registration required in advance, please email – learningcurve@lagaycenter.org.
Thursday, May 26, 2011 – 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Center on Halsted – Chicago, IL. 3656 N. Halsted, Chicago, IL 60613. (773) 472-6469. Registration required in advance. Please call 773-472-6469, ext. 437, or email: -zzimmerman@centeronhalsted.org.
The Right Side of Forty Workshop For US Cities in 2011
Sexual Attention. This ninety-minute workshop allows gay men to gain insight into how our history of relating to males impacts on our comfort with aging. There are numerous ways we relate to each other as gay men; and cruising, or sexual attention is one of the most common. One of the thirteen chapters in my book focuses on sexual attention. Gay men have four distinct approaches towards sexual attention. Here’s one of the four – not engaging in sexual attention. So even if you are a gay man that doesn’t cruise, this workshop includes your approach. Find out the other three, discover the history of which approaches you use, and learn strategies to change your approach to increase your happiness and confidence as an older gay man. All ages of gay men welcome, and for gay men over forty – even decades over forty – this workshop is for you!
Additional workshop details:
If you are the type of man who would never attend a workshop or group; or if the thought of being in a room filled with strangers and forced to share private information about yourself concerns you – don’t worry – this workshop is also for you! All of my workshops are presented in lecture-format where I provide you with tools and strategies that you can then apply in the future to your interactions with other gay men. You are not required to interact or speak about your life.
Each workshop highlights a topic from my forthcoming book The Right Side of Forty: The Guide to Happiness for Gay Men at Midlife and Beyond. These ninety-minute workshops help gay men think about their own story of how they have related to males over the course of their lives.
Every workshop begins with a discussion on our childhoods. This allows gay men to gain insight into how childhood experiences of not fitting with other males informs our interactions as younger gay men (especially if we finally achieve success and popularity, as many younger gay men do). Yet, this very often then leads to isolation with aging as we experience thinking we no longer belong again as older gay men.
There exist numerous challenges with aging. My clinical method, book and all workshops specifically address areas that are exclusive to the aging of gay men. Here’s one: research on the brain is suggesting that males are visually stimulated in ways differently than females.
This creates a unique dilemma for gay men. We are men, visually stimulated by other men, who are also visually stimulated. This leaves gay men with additional burdens on our looks changing with age that impact our success, confidence and happiness with other gay men; while a heterosexual man’s looks changing with age do not impact to the same degree on his success with women. This puts pressure on our looks into a completely different stratosphere from what aging straight men experience. That really sucks for aging gay men doesn’t it?
No need to fret further, when you attend any of my workshops – no matter the specific topic – I will give you the strategies that acknowledge circumstances unique to our aging as gay men.
Please feel free to contact directly if you have questions or concerns that may prevent you from thinking you would be comfortable attending one of my workshops.
