Unfinished and Unafraid: Stories of Queer Baby Boomers
Documentary Photo Project
For queer elders living in today’s America, feeling connected can be difficult. Nearly 78% of older adults in the LGBTQ+ community are concerned about the lack of support from family and friends as they age, according to AARP. “Unfinished and Unafraid” explores how LGBTQ+ baby boomers living in the United States combat isolation, navigate aging and lead authentic lives as they experience the fluctuating waves of liberation and oppression.
The oldest member of the baby boomer generation (1946 - 1964) would be 80 years old this year, a year older than the life expectancy in America. As the only living generation to grow up during many of the community’s landmark events: spearheading the queer liberation movement in the 1970s, surviving the AIDS epidemic a decade later and celebrating marriage equality in 2015, baby boomers provide a fascinating lens for understanding the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the US. Their stories mark important proof of survival for the generations to come and will vanish if not told now. The project currently follows three individuals: Les Wright (b. 1953), Denise Cody (b. 1962) and Andrea Stoeckel (b. 1957).
73-year-old Les Wright, a queer historian and long-term HIV survivor, faced a brutal transition when he moved to suburban Cortland after spending more than a decade in the LGBTQ+ hub of San Francisco, where he helped establish the GLBT Historical Society and became an AIDS activist.
“I felt like I had jumped off the top of the Empire State Building and landed face-first on the sidewalk,” Wright said, discussing the deep social isolation he had experienced in the suburbia of Central New York. But in the last three years, Wright has found home again in Syracuse, getting engaged in 2026. He serves on the board of SAGE Upstate, a nonprofit supporting the well-being of older LGBTQ+ adults, and participates in Bear-A-Cuse, a safe space for members of the bear subculture, which celebrates hairy, stocky men. Establishing the Bear History Project International, Wright continues on his life mission since the 1990s: writing and preserving bears’ history.
At the younger end of the baby boomers, 64-year-old Denise Cody said queer people her age were lucky to be recognized because of people who came before and fought for their rights. Cody has experienced different types of discrimination being female, bisexual, living with disability, and now as an older person. Diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type Three when she was 14 years old, Cody began using a wheelchair in her 20s when walking became difficult. Nowadays, she also lives with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Despite the challenge of physical discomfort, Cody remains engaged in the Syracuse Gay and Lesbian chorus, where she met many of her friends since she joined the group in 1996, as well as participating in events organized by SAGE Upstate.
“We live in America, supposed to be the land of the free and the brave,” Cody said. “There's not much freedom going on, and it's scary, and all we really need to do is to learn to respect one another and be kind.”
Andrea Stoeckel, a 69-year-old retired minister, has been estranged from her only sibling, who believes that being gay is contagious. Having lived alone since her divorce in 2024, Stoeckel said she has to work at not being isolated. She stays active with the Plymouth Congregational Church in Syracuse and sings soprano at the Syracuse Gay and Lesbian chorus. Supported by a walker, Stoeckel relies on paratransit services to move around the city, but the buses don’t always show up. Her parish brought her to New York State thirty years ago, and she stayed because it feels safe for her as a queer woman living with disability.
“I've struggled with finding community that accepted me most of my life,” she said, “The LGBTQIA2S+ community is that for me.”
