Access and equity in the design and delivery of health and social care to LGBTQ older adults: A Canadian perspective.

Abstract

This chapter was developed with the financial support of the Centre de recherche et d'éxpertise en gérontologie sociale and the Centre de santé et de service sociaux Cavendish-Affilié universitaire.

Hypervisibility: Toward a Conceptualization of LGBTQ Aging

“…Indeed, as Cronin and King (2010) have noted, some sexual minority older adults, for instance those with experience in cultivating heterosexual relations of kinship, may have access to more normative forms of kin-based support in old age. These adults, though often found to experience stigma and hostility in systems of care, primarily as a result of their perceived or self-proclaimed identification with nonheterosexuality in old age (Cronin and King 2010;Brotman et al 2015), may nonetheless identify with aspects of the nuclear family to varying extents. Rather than assuming an unequivocally universal inaccessibility to kin-based care among older LGBTQ adults, the current framework of hypervisibility locates varying expressions of distance from the nuclear family as being either perceived by others (e.g., service providers), or subjectively experienced by queer/trans older adults themselves, based on a vast array of characteristics and experiences that may or may not wholly preclude access to kin-based care.…”

“…Of importance, given the relative dearth of both empirical and theoretical inquiry in the area of queer/trans aging, many have drawn on this expression of omission itself as a conceptual basis for understanding the systemic invisibility of older LGBTQ adults across a range of dominant social and political contexts (Brotman et al 2015;Brown 2009;Eliason et al 2010;Knauer 2011;King 2014;Rose and Hospital 2015). For instance, in Knauer's (2011) comprehensive account of salient social and legal issues among older LGBTQ adults, this writer problematizes the paucity of an empirically informed knowledge base in the field of queer/trans aging, and frames this reality as a reflection of marginality among older sexual and gender minority adults.…”

“…The experiences and realities of older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) adults remain largely unrecognized and unexamined in both theoretical and empirical bodies of social science literature (Brotman et al 2015;Brown 2009;Eliason et al 2010;Kimmel 2015;King 2014;Knauer 2011;Rose and Hospital 2015). However, several factors justify the need for attempts to conceptualize and more systematically study aging phenomena in sexual minorities and transgender populations.…”

“…First, given the continued salience of medicalized aging (Fishman et al 2008;Lupton 2003), as well as the growing visibility of non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities among the elderly (Cahill 2007), it is possible to suggest that medical surveillance plays an increasingly influential role in limiting expressions of nonnormative sexuality and gender identity in old age. Second, perhaps more importantly, in light of the recognized need for both the fields of queer theory and gerontology to address problems located at an ever more multifaceted intersection of identities and experiences, the development of theory that situates same-sex sexuality and gender non-conformity within the context of the life course may not only be pertinent, but also necessary (Brotman et al 2015;Brown 2009;Kimmel 2015;Knauer 2011). This paper constitutes an attempt to conceptualize aging phenomena within communities selfidentifying as BLGBTQ,^hereon referred to interchangeably as Bqueer/trans^for the purpose of convenience.…”

“…This paper constitutes an attempt to conceptualize aging phenomena within communities selfidentifying as BLGBTQ,^hereon referred to interchangeably as Bqueer/trans^for the purpose of convenience. In recognizing the stigma-laden history of the word Bqueer^in communities of older LGBTQ adults, I explicitly delineate use of this label throughout the paper as an umbrella term that may account for variability and fluidity in self-identification with LGBTQ categories among older sexual and gender minority adults (Brotman et al 2015). Foucault's (2008) notion of governmentality, I will argue, can be used to conceptualize LGBTQ aging as a realm in which its subjects are rendered Bhypervisible^to neoliberal systems of surveillance and control, which in turn serve to limit the expression of non-normative sexuality and gender identity in old age.…”