PHILADELPHIA — DENISE SAMEN, who is 65 and a military veteran, has not had an easy life. She lost an arm in a train accident, supported herself by working a series of low-paying service and clerical jobs, needs a wheelchair to get around and came of age when homosexuality was considered a psychiatric disorder. And though she has never hidden who she is — she often dresses in men’s-styled clothing — she doesn’t play it up, either.

“I was guarded,” she said.

At the Brooklyn apartment complex where she used to live, she edited the community newsletter, and one June day, she decided to include a banner headline reminding residents it was gay pride month.

“There was this one woman who didn’t take that kindly,” Ms. Samen said.

The neighbor taped an anonymous and disparaging note on her door (Ms. Samen sleuthed out the perpetrator’s identity). And though Ms. Samen fired back with a July 4 editorial about respecting your fellow Americans, it left a bad taste.

So it was with great pleasure that she recently moved into the John C. Anderson Apartments here, a new, rent-subsidized 56-unit building for older adults where about 90 percent of the tenants are gay. “You don’t have to explain yourself,” she said. “You don’t worry about anyone putting you down.”