Oder it now! Queer Aging is Out

 I'm holding now the advance copies of Queer Aging! It looks fantastic.
Get yours @ Amazon. I'd love to see your own review --even one line-- on Amazon.

Queer Aging: The Gayby Boomers and a New Frontier for Gerontology

Queer Aging, the book, is now available for pre-order at 30% discount -- check it our here: Queer Aging at Oxford Univ Press.

As the first generation of gay men enters its autumn years, these men's responses to the physical and emotional tolls of aging promise to be as revolutionary as their advances in AIDS and civil rights activism. Older gay men's approaches to friendship, caregiving, romantic and sexual relationships, illness, and bereavement is upending conventional wisdom regarding the aging process, LGBTQ communities, and the entire field of gerontology.

• An innovative new work that examines the aging of gay men through 11 first-person accounts
• Interviews with racially and economically diverse older gay men offer unprecedented breadth of account and perspective
• Includes theoretical and historical framework for engaging with subjects' first-person narratives
• Ideal text for undergraduate, masters, and doctoral level courses in sociology, American history, LGBTQ studies, gerontology, African American and Latino studies, and social work
• Valuable resource for health professionals who serve LGBTQ communities and communities and color and friends, family, and caregivers of older gay men
  

  Table of Contents

  Preface
   
  1: Introduction: Queering Gerontology
  2: Stan:"If I'm left, then I have to be the best little gay boy ever"
  3: Anthony: " It has to be something else to this"
  4: Marvin: "I learned very early that it's not just about being gay"
  5: Robert: "I'm a pusher and I don't like to hear the word 'no'"
  6: Ramiro: "My family is really my gay friends"
  7: Grand: "I am a humanitarian"
  8: Charlie:"...being older and being by yourself"
  9: Adam:"...age is just a number. I don't necessarily put much stock in it"
  10: Jesse:"I am a chameleon. I adapt to whatever you throw me into"
  11: Louis: "I'm always meeting the underdog people"
  12: Jimmy: "The party came to a crashing end"
  13: The Praxis of Queer Gerontology

 

Does HIV Accelerate Aging?

The long-term effects of HIV is one of the hottest topics in the field, along with that of Pre-exposure prophylaxis,PrEP. But it might be something we will never know because we can not disassociate the effects of HIV from the ongoing "aging" process, the medications (and which types of meds), co-occurring  conditions, like diabetes, and the interactions among all of them. 

The latest study, featured on NPR (People Who Are HIV-Positive May Be Aging Faster Than Their Peers), tries to get at this question via our DNA -- an innovative technique reminiscent of an archeological exploration. The results hint at -- as most medical studies do, it could go as far as suggesting-- an accelerated aging effect. But this does not offer any new clues for prevention and treatment, yet. The conclusion actually applies to everybody: see your doctor, exercise, and eat well.  

The AIDS Generation

“I think oh thank God, there’s other people who are there, who saw it, who know it, who lived through because we are few and between.” (Kerry, p. 121).

Mr. Kerry is one of the participants interviewed for The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience, by Perry N. Halkitis (Oxford University Press, 2014). I enjoyed reading it and recommend it to those of you interested in AIDS, gay men's health, gerontology, psychology, and social work. You can read my full review published by AIDS Education and Prevention.

The Queer Quest for Retirement

A few years ago we thought that retirement communities for LGBT folks were possible. The financial crisis, specially the drop of real estate values, might have changed that. Now many of the planned communities are yet to be developed or have been canceled. The few that were built are in bankruptcy, as the story in the New York Times shows.

This gives us time to pause and think: are these retirement communities the future for LGBT folks? Is the existing model of retirement communities created by a white, heterosexual middle class fitting to LGBT retirees? Perhaps no.

The communities planned for older LGBT retirees targeted the middle class and the rich, not the vast majority of LGBT people. Many of these communities also targeted (implicitly) couples, as the traditional model has done so. This is not the majority of LGBT elders, not even a half of them. It might be that the idea of a retiring community in a small town or resort city is based on a heterosexual archetype and not on the idea of a community that is primarily urban and that relies mostly on peers and social networks. Even more, the variation of legislation supporting (or condemning ) same sex unions across states limits the choices for LGBT to buy property and migrate.

So the failure of LGBT retirement communities we are seeing is not a surprise (except for the aspect related to the collapse of the real estate market).

A couple of alternatives come to mind. One is the housing program currently run by SAGE (Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders), in which older LGBT folks are matched with younger LGBT in need of inexpensive housing. The former provides low cost housing and the latter, social support.

The other option is based on the initiative of small group of citizens who come together as a co-op to buy and manage their own residences – e.g., a mid-size condominium building fitted to their social and health needs. Yet, this model assumes folks can afford, at least, a studio-size property.

We have a lot of thinking and experimenting to do before we figure out what, where and how, works for our LGBT elders.