John Mazzullo cautiously approached the circulation desk at the Newton Free Library, thick gray hair slicked back, and anxieties swirling in his head. He was on his way to a meeting for the Cooper Center’s Older Adult Services LGBTQA+ Socials, a social group for LGBTQ Newtonians of all ages. It was his first time.

He was nervous.

“The library is a big place,” he said.

Before even arriving, he had agonized over the flyer, which had told invitees that they should feel free to bring dinner to the meeting, which ran from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

“That was a big impediment at first,” Mazullo said. “What would I bring? Would I do take out? Would  a sandwich work? Should I eat beforehand, and just bring fluid with me?”

But he had made it, determined to connect with others after retiring from his long career as a physician, battling cancer, and being homebound during the pandemic. He asked the library for the directions to a meeting with Newton senior citizens, purposely omitting the “LGBTQ” label from the stranger in front of him.

He walked into the correct room and found 16 other people, most in their 20s and 30s, a mix of transgender, gay and straight allies—the beginnings of a community.

After that first meeting, Mazzullo said he’s made it a habit to show up to the gatherings twice a month with his husband, James.

“I’m glad I knew about the flyers that go out every month or so, and I’m glad I was able to get up enough gumption to go, and I’m glad I had company to go,” Mazzullo said.

Mazzullo is just one member of LGBTQA+ Newton, which Rosa Buffone organized as an offshoot of a former program through the Older Adult Services department for the City of Newton.

Buffone attended her first meeting of the former program 11 years ago as a participant along with her wife, and enjoyed the casual nature of the meetings.

“We started attending those gatherings at the senior center,” Buffone said. “They were monthly, and it was great socialization. It was really wonderful to be there and to meet other 55-plus, LGBT, Newton residents.”

But the group’s numbers dwindled with time, and the Senior Center suspended the program due to staffing changes during COVID. During the pandemic, Buffone missed the connections she had made through the group.

“I reached out to the new facilitator and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on? How come we’re not doing Zoom?” Buffone said. “People are really isolated. This is when they need to connect.”

Organizers told Buffone that the city had been meaning to start it back up, but they didn’t have enough staff to cover it, so Buffone volunteered to facilitate
the Senior Center group at the Brigham House in Newton. Additionally, Buffone took matters into her own hands and assembled a list of contacts and kicked off a new, independent group, LGBTQ+ Newton, meeting first this past January at the Ward 4 restaurant in Auburndale.

Today, LGBTQ+ Newton operates through an email list, and the group gathers for impromptu dinners, picnics or movie nights scattered in between the scheduled Older Adult Services’ monthly evening meetings at the Newton Free Library and monthly daytime meetings at the Senior Center.

“Organically, it just grew, this LGBTQ+ Newton, out of the desire to socialize outside of the two designated times that were being provided by the older Adult Services Program,” Buffone said.

The group is intergenerational. Its last meeting, a trivia night organized in collaboration with the Older Adult Services program and the Newton Free Library, hosted members in their teens to their 80s. Given the large age gap between Mazzullo, 82, and the other members, he said that he’s offered them important insights about gay history including the Stonewall riots, the AIDS crisis, and the fight for marriage equality.

“They knew about post-Stonewall, and they knew about the changes, but it’s like me trying to understand World War II or something like that,” Mazzullo said. “It’s so far away and so distant.”

Newton resident and former Alderman Marcia Johnson began attending meetings when her grandson came out as trans. She said that she’s learned a lot from the LGBTQ members of the group about their experiences, struggles and hopes.

“There’s a whole world for my husband and me that is just brand new,” Johnson said. And more than 50 years after Mazzullo’s experiences at Stonewall, crackdowns on gay and trans rights in the legislature and courts make it clear that the fighting is not done. That’s why Mazzullo thinks community is more important than ever.

“These groups are extremely important,” Mazzullo said. “When you feel the government is not on your side, and you feel even more lonely and more loss of community, getting together to plan for the future rather than letting the problem engulf us, it gives us something to solve and something to do.”