Sexual and Gender Diversity in Ageing: Care, Health and Resistance of GBTQ Men and Non-binary People

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, aging has become an important concern in government and research agendas. However, there is a gap in the literature on ageing and health, particularly with regard to health-related issues affecting older gay, bisexual, transgender or queer men and non-binary people (GBTQ*). 

Based on the understanding that there are specific challenges directly affecting a rapidly growing population, this special issue is focused on the impact of legal bans, pathologization, and social stigma, on care, health and wellbeing of older GBTQ* people.

More specifically, we are interested in proposals concerned with health-related policy frameworks and/or biographic experiences relating to the care, health and wellbeing of older GBTQ* people. This includes those who have experienced the impacts of homo-, bi-, and transphobia; those who have encountered good practices that could be transferred elsewhere; and those whose experiences of resistance in the medico-legal sphere can indicate possible directions for social transformation.

Relevant aspects include, but are not restricted to, the following:

√ critical perspectives of health-related policies and politics for older GBTQ* people

√ impact and strategies of resistance to the pathologization of sexual orientation and gender identity in older GBTQ* people

√ impact of HIV/aids related experiences and public policy in older GBTQ* people

√ health-related consequences (mental or other) of the criminalization of sexual or gender diversity for currently older GBTQ* people

√ intersections of ageing, health and subaltern masculinities

√ intersections of GBTQ* ageing, disability and chronic illness

√ healthcare provision for older GBTQ* people (including good practices)

√ health-related stigma affecting older GBTQ* people (misdiagnosis, serophobia, medical gaslighting, etc.)

√ beyond the binary: care, health and well-being of older non-binary and intersex people

√ relationship between aging and trans- or same-sex sexuality (including daily management of intimate life)

√ sociocultural values attributed to sexual and gender diversity in old age

We welcome contributions from a range of fields, including (but not limited to) studies on age, aging and the life course, crip studies/critical disability studies, gender and queer studies, gerontology, LGBTI+ studies, mad studies, medical anthropology, memory studies, and the sociology of health, amongst others. We also encourage submissions from countries or regions in which knowledge dissemination in this field has so far been sparse.

Dr. Ana Cristina Santos and Dr. Pablo Pérez Navarro

Guest Editors