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

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.