Speaker B describes how the Conscious Lesbian Elders Group and Academy helped her move from being closeted at work to living authentically. The Academy teaches emotional awareness and dating strategies through classes like the Roadmap, while the elders group is a weekly coffee gathering for support and connection.
Chapters
So we were just talking about the value that you've gotten from the Academy and, you know, why people might want to actually sign up to take some of those classes. People over 60 who— even people who are not sure that they want to date or be in another relationship.
I, I Have, and I will repeat myself a little bit. I felt that I had been closeted, hidden, not only from other people, but from myself, but especially the company that I worked for. I, the CEO knew that I was gay because he and I had talked back in 1998. But others didn't. And I couldn't share. I couldn't share my true self with any of them because I always had that fear factor. My clients, uh, I dealt with so, I mean, 10,000 people plus on a, on a daily, weekly basis that I was afraid. of, of coming out. And so I had to weigh my words.
Mm-hmm.
And now with the Academy working and talking and being with lesbians who are like me, some of them much wiser because they've been out longer, or maybe some just have, uh, still hidden and are still questioning. The Academy has opened that door for me to be able to be myself. To speak my mind, speak my heart, and I want them to. I want people to understand that's available to them. It's not just me out there. I I feel like we're a group of sisters and cousins, if that makes people feel better. But it's we're like-minded, and we want even though we have different experiences, we have different. Uh, levels of wisdom. We have different levels of experience, and we have different levels of ability. I think that the Academy opens the door for us to go there. You don't have— joining the elders, for me, kind of opened the door. And then when I went into the Academy, I— Mm-hmm. Realize there's a whole world out here. There's a whole world out here. It's not just the 35 ladies who get together once a week. And I've learned that maybe I don't want to find someone online. Maybe I do. But it's my choice. I get to make that choice. And I get to control it. The roadmap class teaches me how to control it, teaches me how to, to move about throughout my day and feel free to share whatever comes to my mind and in my heart. So that's me in a nutshell. Where I've come from is being hidden. I will say that sometimes I hid myself as well. So being comfortable with all of these ladies who are like-minded has just made my heart swell. And I, I would love for people to take the, join the academy and learn the classes, learn what is offered to them. They can reject it if they want, but they need to at least give it a try. Mm-hmm.
And it seems like the elders group is more, as it's evolved, the Conscious Lesbian Elders Group is more like If we were to be meeting in person, it's like if you were to meet at a restaurant once a week and have coffee and just have conversations with people.
Right.
And get to have that touchpoint to connect in and get to share what's going on in your life and hear what's going on in other people's lives. And the Academy is an academy. It's a school. Where we get to really learn about our emotional lives and, you know, what works in dating and what doesn't and why, and what may have made previous relationships not work and how to do that differently. And how to empower yourself to find a partner that will actually be right for you and how to also be the right person yourself, all of that. So seems important somehow to communicate that That they're very different settings. They're both really valid and important, and some people like both, and for some people one is a fit and not the other.
Right.
With this, but it seemed important to document the conversation.
