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

 

The Labor Force in Geriatrics Is Shrinking

We all pay the price for ageism – our negative views of old age. Most of us will need some form of care as we age, yet the work force of geriatrics and gerontology is shrinking. I argue, as this article in the NYT does, that our views about old age discourage younger people to enter into professions related to health and human services for the elderly.

Our challenge is to incentivize entry into the fields of gerontology. And rational arguments don’t do the job. We frequently remind students of two main facts: Most of us will reach older age and older people will become the larger population sector in the United States pretty soon. But they, young students, want to learn about global health, sexuality, obesity, and the environment.

I do not think we have the answers to this challenge yet and it will take a combination of factors: likely, we will rely on recent immigrants for the supply of care; in our market economy we would need to increase financial rewards for those working in geriatrics; and we would have to re-conceptualize old age, which is the most difficult task we face.