PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL: This senior center is helping Mexico’s ‘invisible’ LGBTQ seniors →

Gustavo Pérez's memories of growing up as a gay man in Mexico City are scarred by discrimination and struggle.

Still, he said, his youth was a happier time. The 80-year-old has struggled with something even harder in his old age: loneliness.

Pérez often spent several days with no one else to talk to — until a few months ago, when he walked by a rainbow flag in his neighborhood and discovered it was a day center for LGBTQ senior citizens. It has now become his second home.

Samantha Flores, a trans woman, stands at the entrance to the Vida Alegre, a day center for older LGBTQ people in Mexico City that she cofounded. Credit: Steven Grattan/The World