Age is just a number, or so the saying goes, and one group of men, the Greater Nashville Prime Timers, is proving it right. With an impressive array of programs and activities, Prime Timers is an organization for mature gay and bisexual, and those who admire them, to connect with each other and form new and meaningful friendships, providing an environment of mutual support.
The group also provides safe harbor to connect more deeply with the GLBT community, particularly for men who are perhaps becoming more open about their sexuality later in life and for Nashville newcomers.
According to chapter president, Wresch Dawidjan, regular group meals, both dining out and pot-luck events, easily draw twenty attendees. Past group activities have included trips to the Hermitage, the symphony, and even the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
For their support of the Nashville Ballet, the Prime Timers were admitted to a preview showing of “Sleeping Beauty.” Events such as these provide ample opportunities for meeting new people and catching up with old friends.
Things were not always so. Ten years ago, the organization couldn’t manage to take hold in Nashville. But now in its third year, the Greater Nashville chapter of Prime Timers Worldwide is thriving, having expanded its membership each year since its formation.
The group’s success, according to Dawidjan, is in part due to changing attitudes towards homosexuality in Nashville, as well as the city’s changing demographics. The influx of new businesses, as well as the rising profile of Nashville as an international tourist destination, seem to have contributed to the openness more and more mature gay men feel in expressing themselves publicly.
But the real success of Nashville’s Prime Timers is due to its vibrant and active membership, and its busy calendar of events that bring these men together around common interests, and engages them with the wider Nashville GLBT community. One of the Prime Timers’ most exciting program offerings, hosted at OutCentral on the third Wednesday of every month at 8 p.m., is their Classic Movie Night.
This event, free and open to the public, offers guests the opportunity to screen some of the most prominent, gay-themed movies ever made. This years featured films include “My Beautiful Laundromat” (February), “Mambo Italiano” (March) and “Mysterious Skin” (April).
Like classic cars and classic movies, some things age well, and the Greater Nashville Prime Timers are true classics. For more information about all of the Prime Timers’ programming, as well as membership in the organization, visit their website www.tnprimetimers.org or contact Dawidjan at wresch@comcast.net.