Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans Aging in a U.K. Context: Critical Observations of Recent Research Literature

Almack, Kathryn; King, Andrew

doi:10.1177/0091415019836921

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The study aimed to take a temperature check of how older LGBT+ people in the UK were impacted by mandatory social isolation during the Spring-Summer 2020 lockdown, and to understand what coping strategies they were using to manage their situations. Given preexisting inequalities faced by LGBT+ older people (Almack & King, 2019;Westwood et al, 2020) and evidence that the pandemic has exacerbated preexisting inequalities among many disadvantaged groups (Blundell et al, 2020), we wanted to understand how this applied in relation to LGBT+ older people and their sub-populations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical and mental well-being, risk and protective factors among older lesbians /gay women in the United Kingdom during the initial COVID-19 2020 lockdown

Westwood

Hafford‐Letchfield

Toze

2021

Journal of Women & Aging

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This article reports on a subset of findings from a recent UK survey of the impact of COVID-19 on older LGBT+ people in the UK. It considers the responses of 149 lesbian/gay women (137 cisgender, 12 trans) to questions relating to physical and mental health and wellbeing. Findings indicate that those women -in couples and singles -who were happy with their living circumstances pre-COVID showed stoicism, adaptability, and determined positivity in response to the pandemic and associated lockdown. Some even reported an improved quality of life, better personal relationships and increased neighborly support. By contrast, those women who were very unhappy with their circumstances prior to COVID-19 -generally women who lived alone and experienced a mismatch between their actual and desired social network -either remained unhappy or became more unhappy, due to its impact on fragile support systems. For trans women, formal support from trans/LGBT+ specific networks -online during COVID lockdown -were central to their wellbeing. Having access to, and being able to use, online technologies were essential to good mental health during lockdown. These findings reaffirm the diversity among older lesbians/gay women as well as highlighting how COVID-19 has acted as a magnifier to their preexisting circumstances. The narratives of those doing well -generally betternetworked, intentionally positive and engaged in practices which promote their well-being -may offer insights for supporting those who find their lives more challenging, both during a public health crisis and more generally.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical and mental well-being, risk and protective factors among older lesbians /gay women in the United Kingdom during the initial COVID-19 2020 lockdown

Westwood

Hafford‐Letchfield

Toze

2021

Journal of Women & Aging

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“…To better understand the underlying mechanisms behind health disparities in LGB individuals [8,9,10,11,12], we compared LGB and non-LGB adults with regard to the effect of educational attainment on subjective health and well-being in US adults. Built on a national sample of Americans, and informed by MDRs theory [13,14], we expected the protective effect of educational attainment on various domains of subjective well-being and health to be smaller for LGB people compare to non-LGB individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational Attainment and Subjective Health and Well-Being; Diminished Returns of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals

Assari

Bazargan

2019

Behavioral Sciences

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Background: Educational attainment is one of the strongest determinants of subjective health and well-being. Minorities’ Diminished Returns, however, suggests that such an effect may be smaller for the members of racial/ethnic minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics relative to non-Hispanic Whites. Only one study has previously shown that minorities’ diminished returns may also apply to lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals; however, that study has focused on other outcomes (i.e., obesity). Aims: To compare LGB and non-LGB American adults for the effects of educational attainment on subjective health and well-being. Methods: This cross-sectional study used baseline data of 31,480 adults in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH, 2013), a nationally representative study in the United States. The independent variable was educational attainment. The dependent variable was subjective health and well-being, measured using four items. Race, ethnicity, age, gender, poverty status, and employment were the covariates. LGB status was the moderator. Results: Overall, individuals with higher educational attainment had better subjective health and well-being. We found a significant interaction between LGB status and educational attainment which was suggestive of that the boosting effect of high educational attainment on better subjective health and well-being was systemically smaller for LGB than non-LGB individuals. Conclusions: In the United States, highly educated LGB adults experience poor subjective health and well-being, a status that is disproportionate to their educational attainment.

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“…Perhaps this silence arises from the desire of researchers and participants to counter reductionist or fetishizing accounts of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender, which might focus on sexual activity as the defining aspect of these identities and lives. However, the literature on LGBT + ageing is now substantial enough that this danger is surely reduced [see Almack and King (2019), and Fredriksen-Goldsen and Muraco (2010), for UK and US-focused overviews, and see King et al (2019), for an attempt to redress some of the gaps in this literature]. The current silence suggests that the sexual activity of older non-heterosexual and/or transgender people remains beyond the charmed circle.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Later Life Sex and Rubin’s ‘Charmed Circle’

Jones

2020

Sexuality & Culture

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Gayle Rubin's now classic concept of the 'charmed circle' has been much used by scholars of sexuality to discuss the ways in which some types of sex are privileged over others. In this paper, I apply the concept of the charmed circle to a new topiclater life-in order both to add to theory about later life sex and to add an olderage lens to thinking about sex hierarchies. Traditional discursive resources around older people's sexual activities, which treat older people's sex as inherently beyond the charmed circle, now coexist with new imperatives for older people to remain sexually active as part of a wider project of 'successful' or 'active' ageing. Drawing on the now-substantial academic literature about later life sex, I discuss some of the ways in which redrawing the charmed circle to include some older people's sex may paradoxically entail the use of technologies beyond the charmed circle of 'good, normal, natural, blessed' sex. Sex in later life also generates some noteworthy inversions in which types of sex are privileged and which treated as less desirable, in relation to marriage and procreation. Ageing may, furthermore, make available new possibilities to redefine what constitutes 'good' sex and to refuse compulsory sexuality altogether, without encountering stigma.

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Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans Aging in a U.K. Context: Critical Observations of Recent Research Literature

Cited by 13 publications

References 29 publications

Physical and mental well-being, risk and protective factors among older lesbians /gay women in the United Kingdom during the initial COVID-19 2020 lockdown

Physical and mental well-being, risk and protective factors among older lesbians /gay women in the United Kingdom during the initial COVID-19 2020 lockdown

Educational Attainment and Subjective Health and Well-Being; Diminished Returns of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals

Later Life Sex and Rubin’s ‘Charmed Circle’

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