Episode 21:7 Paul Nagle on Advocating for LGBTQ Older Adults

In this episode of Glowing Older, host Nancy Griffin interviews Paul Nagle, Executive Director of Stonewall Community Development Corporation. They discuss the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ seniors, including discrimination in housing and the need for innovative community-driven solutions. Paul shares his personal journey as a survivor of AIDS and his activism in creating supportive housing and care systems for LGBTQ older adults. The conversation highlights the importance of resilience, community, and advocacy in addressing the needs of this marginalized population as traditional long-term care systems face collapse.

About Paul

Paul has over 30 years in both nonprofit administration and LGBTQ+ activism and currently serves as the Founding Executive Director of Stonewall Community Development Corporation (Stonewall CDC) since 2015. Before joining Stonewall CDC, Paul was the Executive Director of Cultural Strategies Initiative Inc. (CSI), a program of Demos, established with a major grant from the Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund. The mission of this project was to strengthen art’s central role in civic life, to enhance cultural, community, and environmental sustainability.

Before that, as Director of Communications & Cultural Policy for NYC Councilmember Alan Gerson (2002-2010), Paul organized the hard-hit cultural community in District 1 and engaged them in crafting strategies to help preserve and revitalize the arts in Lower Manhattan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. His community-generated plan, Campuses & Corridors, served as the blueprint for a partnership between the Mayor, the Council Speaker and the Councilmember that was very successful in providing targeted capital and programmatic investments to restore the sector and convince the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to grant $70 million to small to mid-sized arts organizations.

Paul earned both of his degrees from the Gallatin School at New York University, graduating summa cum laudefrom the bachelor’s program. He earned his masters’ degree at age 49 in 2007. An abridged version of his master’s thesis, Room for Creativity – the Role of Artists’ Live/work Space in the New Economy, was published in The International Journal of the Arts in Society.

Key Takeaways

• Stonewall Community Development Corporation focuses on housing and care for LGBTQ older adults. The organization has successfully placed over 1,400 families in permanent housing.
• Discrimination against LGBTQ individuals in housing isprevalent and often overlooked. Community generated systems of care are essential for LGBTQ seniors.
• The traditional long-term care system is collapsing due to outdated policies and low wages. Building networks of care is crucial for community resilience.