20 photos from the grand opening of Palm Springs' older LGBTQ+ luxury community

Palm Springs has a new LGBTQ+ active adult community, which had its grand opening last month.

"The Living Out community is designed to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ seniors by providing a new and unique experience for its residents in a safe and welcoming home," the company's description reads. "From the community to the community, Living Out is a place where residents will live openly, thrive, and will celebrate the LGBTQ+ aging experience in a way that has yet to be realized."

At the grand opening, former California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer joined developers Loren Ostrow and Paul Alanis along with world-renowned chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, Palm Springs Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein, and City Council Members; live music from the Palm Springs Gay Men’s Chorus; and performances from synchronized swimmers The Water Lilies.

Some LGBTQ+ people, having lived out and proud for years, find themselves back in the closet when they enter senior housing -- something veteran activist LuAnn Boylan calls "a travesty."

As director of marketing and leasing at Living Out Palm Springs, Boylan told The Advocate in 2022, when the community was just being built, that the community aims to offer an option that won't require closeting.

Boylan, a lesbian who's a 30-year member of the Los Angeles LGBT Center's board of directors, said she's talked to LGBTQ+ people who felt the need to hide their identity in senior housing, to the extent of taking down pictures of partners and others when housekeepers entered their homes.

"We're the generation that butted up against the wall of discrimination and pushed our way through," she said. "As we grow older and enter the last phase of life, it's just a travesty to think any of us have to go back in the closet or become less authentic."

Living Out isn't an assisted living complex, but it is designed for easy navigation, with elevators and other features so getting around won't be difficult, Boylan said. It isn't for residents on limited incomes either.

"We feel pretty strongly that the value is there," she said at the time. Overall, she noted, Living Out is designed to offer a resort-style atmosphere.

Check out images from the opening below.