Podcast: Where Do Gays Retire? National Capital Region – District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) with Jim Hansen
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Listen up for another great episode of the Where Do Gays Retire? podcast with host Mark Goldstein. It’s perfect timing for me, since my last day at the part-time job is next Wednesday. More time for LGBTSr, more time for writing, more time for everything. How does anyone have time for a job?
Enjoy Mark’s conversation with Jim Hanson, who fills us in on life in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
Jim Hansen
He was born in Pensacola, Florida in 1965 and raised in a military family. By the time he graduated from high school in 1983 in Newport News, Virginia, he had attended 9 different elementary and secondary schools. He can legitimately say he has lived in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington D.C., New York, Germany and now Maryland. Until he moved to the Washington metro area in 1989, he had never lived in one town/city for more than 3 years.
Travel and anything international have always been a significant part of his life. He grew up with a German grandmother who taught high school social studies when she wasn’t traveling the world. His grandfather was in the American military and stationed in Turkey in the 1950s and Iran in the 1960s. That fueled his grandmother’s love of the far and near east and that was transmitted to him via the slides she would show him when he stayed at her house and all the Asian artifacts that filled her home. She literally traveled the entire Silk Road except Afghanistan. By the time he graduated college, he had already been to Europe and Asia. His career choices seemed to boil down to either international relations the hospitality industry, or a mix of the two.
Mark Goldstein
Show Host
Mark grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and lived in Queens, NY, Westchester County, NY, and Stamford Connecticut before moving to the Tampa Bay area in Florida. Soon after moving to Florida, Mark and his husband Peter realized that retiring in Florida wasn’t a great choice. This is when Mark started a Facebook group called “Where Do Gays Retire.”
It took a few years for the group to gain momentum, and then suddenly there was an explosion of growth. From a handful of members, to today’s 12,300+ membership, the group continues to grow and provide the LGBTQ+ community with information on where to retire globally.
Mark started Zoom sessions with people from all over the world who are living in LGBTQ+ desirable locations to educate others.
His latest project was to expand on the Zoom idea to gain a larger audience. The Where Do Gays Retire Podcast was born.
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