Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/92498
Becoming Visible that LGBT people only want the company of other LGBT people frustrating. "We are not a monolithic community," says Allan Singer. "We are a very diverse, heterogeneous group of people." When Singer moved to Weston in 1986, he and his partner Emil felt the need to choose a property that offered privacy so as keep a low profile. "But because I am a gre- garious person and outgoing by nature, over the course of time, I began to feel more iso- lated in our setting, " he says. "I began to crave more of a community connection." When they moved to their more exposed neighbor- hood, it became apparent that the need to keep private was unnecessary. "We have lovely connections with the neighbors on our street. As a gay couple in a community, we need to come out of our own invisibility. " Allan Singer's comfortable perch as a gay man in a committed relationship in an afflu- ent, seemingly traditional town like Weston seems like a contradiction in terms to Scott at WAGLY. "In small towns, rich towns, preppy towns, you have a cookie cutter image to fit into, and not everybody does." The members of WAGLY and their adult mentors spend Monday nights working through some of the easy misconceptions that teenagers have about towns like Wellesley and Weston. "I didn't go to Wellesley High School because I was afraid of the reputation it had," says Joe, who attended a private school. Acknowledging this reputation, Lewis added that "Wellesley High School goes out of its way to support 92 WellesleyWeston Magazine | winter 2012/2013