Marcy Adelman was born on August 12th, 1946, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was raised in a multigenerational household infused with values of history, family, and resilience. Her father, a traveling salesman, often regaled her with tales of his adventures away from home. According to Marcy, his stories made the world feel like a place where she could not only live, but thrive. She describes his attitude towards life as “a wonderful gift.”
By the age of 16, Marcy knew she was a lesbian. Having been taught by her family to take pride in her Jewish identity, she transferred this same idea to her sexuality, and chose to come out on her own schedule. She attended Suffolk University in Boston, where she became heavily involved in anti-war and Civil Rights movements. Then, she left for a summer trip to Europe. In Amsterdam, she met her first love, with whom she would live for several years before returning to the US in 1971.
To avoid returning to her hometown of Boston, Marcy chose her destination of San Francisco out of a picture in a Parisian magazine. She was pleasantly surprised when she landed in her new home and stepped out into the middle of the 1970s gay liberation movement. Marcy refers to the city as a “rich stew” full of celebration, joy, activism, and perhaps most importantly, community. When the HIV epidemic struck, life changed. Of the experience, Marcy says, “We got through it, and we got through changed, and we changed the world.”
Marcy attended graduate school at San Francisco State University. There, she met Dr. Fred Minnigerode and became involved in his pioneering research on gay aging. She later received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, where she wrote her dissertation on the life satisfaction of lesbians and gay men.
While embarking on a career as a psychotherapist in private practice, Marcy also continued her activism around queer aging. Over the course of her career, she conducted a study that “destroyed the myth of gay affluence”; published Long Time Passing: Lives of Older Lesbians, the first book on lesbian aging; and advocated for the unique needs of LGBTQ+ elders. Eventually, she came to a conclusion: “We have terrific senior services here in San Francisco. It’s just a matter of queering them.”
In 1998, alongside her late partner Jeanette Gurevitch, Marcy co-founded the San Francisco-based nonprofit now known as Openhouse. The organization provides LGBTQ+ seniors with affordable housing, direct services, and opportunities to build community. Today, Openhouse serves over 3,000 community members per year.
Marcy describes herself as “someone who always lives a very intentional life.” Her careful attention to the needs of the community around her is an inspiration and a guiding light. Today, after a lifetime of service, Marcy continues to be a driving force in advocacy, policy, and “making things change.”
