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

by Jesus Ramirez-Valles

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.

QUEER AGING comprises scholar Jesus Ramirez-Valles's probing conversations with 11 racially and economically diverse representatives of this pioneering generation of gay men-the gayby boomers. Through candid, first-person narratives, Ramirez-Valles's subjects reflect on their varied experiences as late career professionals, retirees, AIDS survivors, caregivers for ailing partners, and witnesses to profound social and cultural change. Framed within a larger introduction to both Queer Theory and its history, these reflections provide context for understanding the aging arc and experience of older gay men.

Spanning sociology, history, cultural studies, and social work, QUEER AGING will be a vital resource for students as well as health professionals who serve the gay community and communities of color.

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

Published August 15, 2016

Reviews

[willowdog · Rating 1 out of 5]

What was I supposed to learn from this? Was it that I worry about aging, health, loneliness, finances, that sex is not all encompassing (well maybe it is, at least you would get that impression if you looked at my computer bookmarks),that I can not compete with the 20s,30s,40s,50s men out there, and that there is some shame that exists someplace in me and holds me back? And as an elder, I don't necessarily see the camaraderie of gays out there. Except for the shame, are we all that different from our hetero friends? Do I have any hetero friends?

[Mark Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The power in this book is in the words of the eleven men the author interviews ... stories in their own words about their identities, successes and failures, struggles with HIV/AIDS and what it feels like to be a diverse gay man aging in the 21st century. I wish the opening section on Queer Gerontology had been written with more clarity and/or edited more carefully to highlight his assumptions, observations and findings.