Out of the Closet and Into the Trenches: Gay Male Baby Boomers, Aging, and HIV/AIDS

Abstract

Regardless of HIV status, all gay male Baby Boomers are aging in a context strongly shaped by HIV/AIDS. For this subcohort within the Baby Boom generation, the disproportionately high volume of AIDS deaths among gay men aged 25-44 years at the epidemic's peak (1987-1996) created a cohort effect, decimating their social networks and shaping their personal and social lives during the epidemic, throughout their life course, and into later years. But despite these lasting effects on an entire cohort of gay men, relevant scholarship narrowly focuses on older HIV-positive gay men using clinical, psychological, and social network approaches. It thus makes inadequate use of the life course perspective, which, by attention to timing, agency, and interdependence, can uncover the myriad interlocking and longitudinal aspects of the epidemic that affect this group. This article argues for the application of this latter approach to research into the lasting impacts of HIV/AIDS on this cohort of gay men. We examine HIV/AIDS mortality within this cohort at the epidemic's height, these deaths' concentration in urban gay communities, and the growing and increasingly diverse population of HIV-positive gay men born in the Baby Boom Years. Our conclusion suggests that a fuller examination of the role of HIV/AIDS in the lives of gay male Baby Boomers, using a life course perspective, is critical to appreciating this generation's heterogeneity and to expanding knowledge of how later life is shaped by the intersection between historical events, personal biography, and social and community ties.

The impact of HIV-related stigma on older and younger adults living with HIV disease: does age matter?

“…We chose a categorical specification in order to investigate a wider range of effects than would be allowed based on a continuous specification of age. This categorization also acknowledges that one's relationship to HIV is contextualized not only by age, but also by the historical era in which one has lived (Rosenfeld, Bartlam, & Smith, 2012). The regression modeling was undertaken four times in total: once to predict overall stigma and once to predict each of the three stigma subscales.…”

Sexual Debut and HIV-Related Sexual Risk-Taking by Birth Cohort Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in the United States

“…(i.e., 1981–1996) coincided with their formative years (17). For these men, the high number of AIDS-related deaths during this time and the fusion of HIV and gay-related stigma created a cohort effect that exacerbated HIV fear and worry (18). In contrast, YMSM (i.e., men born after 1990) are growing up in time in which HIV has become a manageable, chronic disease (19) and structural changes, such as the legalization of gay marriage (20), reflect a more tolerant climate regarding same-sex relationships (21).…”

Stigma and family relationships of middle-aged gay men in recovery

“…Middle- aged gay men’s developmental trajectory differs from that of younger cohorts in terms of when they first recognized their same-sex attraction and then self-identified as gay (Floyd & Bakeman, 2006). In the United States, their historical context also differs from that of younger cohorts: these men were adolescents and young adults in the 1960s and 1970s and would have witnessed the birth of the gay rights movement, followed by the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s as well as the peak of AIDS-related deaths between 1987 and 1996 (Rosenfeld, Bartlam, & Smith, 2012). All these factors shaped middle-aged gay men’s experiences of stigma, family relationships, alcohol and substance use, and how they think about recovery today.…”