Barbara Rose Brooker is 80 years old, damn proud of it, and she’s ready to march.
The San Francisco native founded the annual Age March to end age discrimination in 2009. The S.F. event has grown since then, drawing more sponsors, supporters and marchers every year.
The 2016 Age March down Union Street takes place at noon on Dec. 4, starting at the corner of Gough and Union and ending at Fillmore Street. Kids and pets are welcome, but this family-friendly event is about grandma and grandpa, and society’s ageist tendencies.
“I believe ageism is just as big a disease as racism and homophobia,” Brooker said in a phone interview. “The media promotes and preaches to be younger, act younger, look younger. Anyone over 50 is a throwaway in this society.”
Co-sponsors include the Institute on Aging, the S.F. Police Department and the Commonwealth Club. Jewish organizations and individuals are in on it, too, including outgoing state Sen. Mark Leno, philanthropist Maurice Kanbar and the Rhoda Goldman Plaza assisted living facility.
The point of the march, according to Brooker, is to show that age is just a number and that anything is possible at any age.
“What I always hear is ‘lie about your age, look great, get hair extensions, dress for youth,’” Brooker said. “The discrimination is huge. To me the remedy is to fight this and say, ‘Hey, I’m 80.’ I believe age pride should be a monumental movement around the country.”
“Martin Luther King wanted people judged by the content of their character,” Brooker said, “and this is exactly the same thing. I hope in the future people will be identified by experience, who they are, and not by a number.”
Brooker, who writes J.’s “Boomer in the City” columns, is the author of several novels, including “The Viagra Diaries,” which she turned into a one-woman play. She credits her Jewish upbringing for heightening her awareness of the societal injustice against seniors.
“Being a Jewish woman, this ties in big time,” she said. “Jews have always suffered discrimination and still do.”