Frank Carter was once a globe-trotting professional dancer; his world is smaller now. He battles multiple health problems, walks with a cane and rarely leaves his compact Manhattan apartment.

As an 86-year-old gay man, with no family nearby and many acquaintances long since dead, he’d seem a likely prospect for isolation.

Stoll came into his life though a program that matches infirm gays and lesbians with volunteers who commit to making weekly visits.

Advocacy groups say the estimated 2.5 million gay seniors in America are twice as likely to live alone, four times less likely to have adult children to help them, and far more fearful of discrimination from health care workers.

A watershed moment comes this month, when the AARP - the largest advocacy group for Americans over 50 - for the first time sponsors a major national conference focused on gay and lesbian aging.

SAGE (Service and Advocacy for GLBT Elders), the New York-based organization

AARP’s involvement is “a big breakthrough