Are LGBT people who spent theirÂ lives fighting oppression forced to go back into the closet when they can’t care for themselves? Some are.

What if you spent the early years of your life in the closet, then came out to fight anti-LGBT oppression, only to find yourself as you grew older, alone, dependent on others for care and companionship â€“ others who want you to be “cured”?

Director Stu Maddox has been working on “Gen Silent,” a documentary that looks at America’s LGBT seniors, and in many cases finds people who are, indeed, alone and dependent on others. Fully half of LGBT seniors live alone, while only one-third of their non-LGBT peers do.

“Gen Silent,” which premieres tonight on Logo, takes a look at six of these seniors, like an 86-year old gay man whose partner, several decades younger, tries to find a nursing home that will respect their relationship. The film also profiles a lesbian couple, who worry about entering into an assisted living environment, and a transgender woman who lost her family once she transitioned.

In a telephone interview today withÂ The New Civil Rights Movement, Maddox says he’s excited about tonight’s premiere because “a whole new set of people is going to discover what itâ€™s like to grow old gay for the first time,” and he believesÂ as a result, “people’s lives will be saved.”

Maddox says he made the film because as a gay man he found himself “looking for role models” he could spend time with, and say it was “an amazing experience.” He worries younger LGBT people don’t have access to these “voices of experience,” and one day they’ll be forced to realize that the oppression today’s LGBT seniors are going through now, affects them too, by robbing them of those experienced voices.

Marriage, Maddox realizes, is not a cure-all for an aging LGBT population that finds itself oppressed again, nor does everyone want to marry.

But Maddox, asked to offer a bit of advice, says, “You need to surround yourself with people who will take care of you.”

Watch “Gen Silent” tonight on Logo at 9:00 PM ET, and the film’s trailer, above.

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