Speaker 1: Okay, kids, it's Pride Month, which is Gay Pride Month
Speaker 1: or lgbt QI plus month. It's for the queer community
Speaker 1: or whatever words that you find comfortable that you use
Speaker 1: for yourself. As this is being released since June third
Speaker 1: at the beginning, and this is fifty plus, and I
Speaker 1: kind of just want to give you a little slideshot
Speaker 1: of of people ask me what I feel about it.
Speaker 1: Why am I not doing any of the festivities or
Speaker 1: any stuff, And so I'll tell you a little bit
Speaker 1: about why. It's a little bit where I'm coming from.
Speaker 1: For me, it's just me, and I know some others
Speaker 1: are around my age are the same, but it's just me.
Speaker 1: So for me, I lived in San Francisco for sixteen years,
Speaker 1: and no matter if you were gay, straight, no matter
Speaker 1: what you were, it's one of the largest celebrations in
Speaker 1: the country. At one time, it's third largest after the
Speaker 1: Rose Bowl and something else here in California. No matter
Speaker 1: where you work Cisco, it was you, you basically worked
Speaker 1: Kay Pride. So whether you if you were a merchant
Speaker 1: or or a business or you just you just you
Speaker 1: worked it. So for years I worked at the nineties
Speaker 1: to the two thousands, I and it's it's a working
Speaker 1: any kind of festival or anything, it's a lot of work.
Speaker 1: And and so I so so for me, it's just
Speaker 1: I did it. I got burnt out all the drunks
Speaker 1: and all the other stuff. To you, that's part of it.
Speaker 1: It's uh, it's it's very much a lot of work.
Speaker 1: But that's one hole. And actually want to talk about
Speaker 1: that on my show All Access Festivals. That's that's on
Speaker 1: jail JBD. Also go check out that show. I talk
Speaker 1: about festivals. I'm not just gonna talk about those years
Speaker 1: on that for a show. That's one reason why I
Speaker 1: cycled out of it. Number Two, I am older, and
Speaker 1: I know I have friends who are older who go
Speaker 1: to it and have a good time, but I guess
Speaker 1: it's just not the same for me anymore. I was
Speaker 1: there in those early years when we were marching seriously
Speaker 1: for our lives. I was there for aids and all that,
Speaker 1: and it was it was a big deal to go
Speaker 1: to them, and we weren't out as much. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that that wasn't going on. We'd have
Speaker 1: a lot of acceptance or a lot of things that
Speaker 1: weren't going on that we do have that because of
Speaker 1: those early pride praise in those marches we have today
Speaker 1: and the younger gay youth you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about so much, even though our country is in a
Speaker 1: weird spots and there are some freedoms threatened, but we
Speaker 1: were way ahead of where we were when I was
Speaker 1: in my teens and twenties, late teens, early twenties, even thirties.
Speaker 1: So I just that's number two. Number three. I'm just
Speaker 1: not big for crowds anymore, before or even before COVID.
Speaker 1: Just like just being in crowds just it's not it's
Speaker 1: not fun for me. My stamina's not the same molders
Speaker 1: as I'm fatter, older, it's not the same stamina just
Speaker 1: not there. But here's just so funny. I was looking
Speaker 1: at my life, and I was looking at the black
Speaker 1: part of my life and the gay part of my life.
Speaker 2: Those are and even maybe even my Latino part of
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 1: Was looking at different parts of who I am, you know,
Speaker 1: my left handed side, my grandparents' side. I've been looking
Speaker 1: at different parts of my life as I've got I
Speaker 1: just had a birthday and I'm fifty six, and I
Speaker 1: looked at my life, the gay parts, and this is
Speaker 1: kind I make jokes that I'm only gay on paper
Speaker 1: because literally I don't do it.
Speaker 2: It's just This is.
Speaker 1: Also why it's so important for people who are not
Speaker 1: gay to realize.
Speaker 2: Many of us are just like you and me are
Speaker 2: just like you.
Speaker 1: We're just we're just we made like us the same
Speaker 1: sex or different types or whatever, but we're basically can
Speaker 1: we the same boring people that anybody else can be Like,
Speaker 1: there's nothing, We're just living our lives. And and one
Speaker 1: of the things for me that makes me laugh because
Speaker 1: I was just like, yeah, that's just.
Speaker 2: Kind of what you know.
Speaker 1: So I don't So I don't have a partner because
Speaker 1: I would love to have one, it's hard to get one.
Speaker 1: I don't have one. I'm not dating anyone. It's hard
Speaker 1: to get true dates nowadays. I mean, as I say,
Speaker 1: it's impossible. I was dating people last year. They because
Speaker 1: with them it's all a part not me.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to stop dating them, they stop dating me.
Speaker 1: Not having sex, I mean, I'll be real aning you,
Speaker 1: I'm not not not I'm not because I don't want you.
Speaker 1: I'd love to you, but just not again, I'm not
Speaker 1: a person who wants to spend money trying to rent
Speaker 1: somebody to have sex with, all these kind of things.
Speaker 2: I just like, that's not me.
Speaker 1: I have to have a connection with somebody, so I
Speaker 1: just that's not because I'm not dating, I'm making connection
Speaker 1: to anybody, so that's not happening. I don't hang out
Speaker 1: at any of the gay establishment or shopping any of
Speaker 1: the gay places because many of them are, to me,
Speaker 1: support racist agendas within the gay community, which has a
Speaker 1: loose term. There is no in my opinion, there is
Speaker 1: no gay community. It's there is a hierarchy and racism
Speaker 1: in that community that I talk to my younger gays
Speaker 1: of color and they fill me in and say it
Speaker 1: has not changed. Apparently it's it's still there, So you
Speaker 1: have that. It's such a it's just such an interesting.
Speaker 2: Time.
Speaker 1: It's just like it's I live in I live in suburbia,
Speaker 1: and I live in a city that I think I
Speaker 1: know a couple of gay people live near here, where
Speaker 1: we don't talk to each other.
Speaker 2: I may say, hive they go by, but I don't.
Speaker 2: I'm not really involved.
Speaker 1: It's just craft. I was thinking, like I don't I
Speaker 1: don't do I mean, I literally I have a couple
Speaker 1: of friends who are gay, but we don't hang out.
Speaker 1: We talk online, talk on the phone. We want to
Speaker 1: try a year actually hang out. I hang out with
Speaker 1: mostly these straight people, people who identify or identify straight.
Speaker 2: I just do, like just my life.
Speaker 1: My closest friends, to my club, My closest friends are straight,
Speaker 1: but they are. For so many years, I was trying
Speaker 1: to find people of color as friends, period, no matter
Speaker 1: what they were, and I couldn't get them where I
Speaker 1: was living. Now I have people who surrounded by people
Speaker 1: of color, which I love. That's that for me is
Speaker 1: actually very fulfilling. But I have aged out of the
Speaker 1: bars and the clubs. I just I have no desire
Speaker 1: to be the old guy in the corner and get gig,
Speaker 1: be ignored or solicited for money from younger people, which
Speaker 1: happens all the time. I might even try to make
Speaker 1: that up. It happens all the time, So I guess
Speaker 1: it's just for me. I'm like, if I were to
Speaker 1: put my gaineness out there, I am barely I barely
Speaker 1: watch any of the gay programs, the popuy copular Gate movies.
Speaker 1: A few of them I like, I don't like them,
Speaker 1: and I'm not even just saying this to be like,
Speaker 1: look at me, I'm like a normal person, not at all.
Speaker 1: I'd love to be gayer like I used to was.
Speaker 1: I was very gay at one point. Just like everything,
Speaker 1: I just don't. I don't. It's I don't feel it
Speaker 1: out there. My life has changed into being an older person,
Speaker 1: being a person who has a who's a business owner,
Speaker 1: being a person who is taking care of an elderly
Speaker 1: parents like my, my, My whole world has changed in
Speaker 1: a way that's just like and I live in a
Speaker 1: big city where people aren't trying to make community happen
Speaker 1: and they aren't trying to get together. And I'm also
Speaker 1: on TV and I'm kind of well known, and it's
Speaker 1: that whole element who do you want to let endo
Speaker 1: your life or do you want to know where you live?
Speaker 1: And it's just it is the it is the craziest thing.
Speaker 1: And so for me, it's it's a very it's a
Speaker 1: big thing of Wow, I'm literally just gay on paper.
Speaker 1: I just I'm gay because I say I'm gay, But like,
Speaker 1: I literally do nothing in that world. And it's so
Speaker 1: we I never I neared until recently. I was like,
Speaker 1: that is crazy talk. So my views are on pride
Speaker 1: basically are kind of are very different. But my general
Speaker 1: view on pride is that there's a lot of work
Speaker 1: still to be done.
Speaker 2: There are things are being threatened.
Speaker 1: If you're young and coming out and I want to
Speaker 1: have a good time and have some fun for a
Speaker 1: couple of weekends here and there, then I say go
Speaker 1: do it. Experience at least once, have a good time.
Speaker 1: That's kind of where I'm at with that, Like, you
Speaker 1: just have a good time, just do it, have a
Speaker 1: good time. And and you know I want. What I
Speaker 1: want is I want people no matter what you who,
Speaker 1: what you who, you like, who you don't like. I
Speaker 1: just want people to be able to be freely who
Speaker 1: they are because when you get older, I've had I was.
Speaker 1: I was free for years. I did whatever I wanted. Basically,
Speaker 1: we know within reason, I had a good time. Like
Speaker 1: I'm not sitting here going I never did anything like.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I've missed out on anything. I
Speaker 1: don't feel like I have no regrets. I mean like
Speaker 1: I lived a full gay life, a full life period
Speaker 1: that I don't I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
Speaker 1: And I just I did it. I really can. I
Speaker 1: can sit back and look at and have. I have
Speaker 1: a million memories I can draw from.
Speaker 2: I know. Someone say, but you still have more to come,
Speaker 2: and maybe I do.
Speaker 1: But it's a different form now because this show is
Speaker 1: called fifty plus, it's about being fifty plus.
Speaker 2: I'm heading towards sixty. It's a different world.
Speaker 1: And my world is so it's not about dancing with
Speaker 1: the shirtless and palm springs doing poppers.
Speaker 2: That's just not my life.
Speaker 1: My life is taking care of my mother and handling business,
Speaker 1: and I have clients and I'm trying to make trying
Speaker 1: to make the world a better place. I have things
Speaker 1: that I want to do in my life. But for
Speaker 1: all those who have none of those concerns, I'm like,
Speaker 1: live your life fully, don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
Speaker 1: So when you get to fifty plus, you can say,
Speaker 1: like I'm saying, you know, I did good.
Speaker 2: I had a good time.
Speaker 1: I lived so I did some stuff and I'm here
Speaker 1: still and no regrets. That's kind of what I hope
Speaker 1: for this and all my older Pride brethren. I hear you,
Speaker 1: I see you. You're out there. I know you are.
Speaker 1: Some of you are caregiving, some of you are disabled
Speaker 1: on disability some of you are still working hard. Some
Speaker 1: of you are just coming out.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: If you are just coming out, congratulations to you. It's
Speaker 1: just it's over fifty. It's different. It definitely is my
Speaker 1: gen xer is my baby boomers. I get it. So
Speaker 1: that's for me. But happy pride to anyone who is celebrating,
Speaker 1: wants to celebrate, and who is celebrating it. And this
Speaker 1: time next year when I come back on the show,
Speaker 1: maybe things were different for me. I have no idea. Man,
Speaker 1: I may have a different store. Worry for you. That's
Speaker 1: why doing the show, because it's a time capsule where
Speaker 1: I am in this journey of being over fifty. And
Speaker 1: maybe you'll can relate to it. But we'll see. But
Speaker 1: I have just on a side, do I have some
Speaker 1: pride programming here on this channels. We are we are
Speaker 1: an ally. We are a channel that's walk away from issue.
Speaker 1: We talk about everything. So it's on. We have some
Speaker 1: stuff on this channel for you, some pride stuff, fairvuew Heights,
Speaker 1: Manchester Avenue, a few just two shows that I have
Speaker 1: to audio dramas right there and then you just we
Speaker 1: do we touch on subjects and I've had some pride
Speaker 1: talks and things and that. Some stuff coming up. So
Speaker 1: like this, I'm James Junior. I have fifty plus. We're
Speaker 1: on all audio streaming service platforms. They have a few
Speaker 1: videos on jamil on YouTube. Subscribe there to you. I'll
Speaker 1: talk to you next time.