Gay and Lesbian Aging: Comprehensive Research and Future Directions in LGBTQ+ Senior Care - Essential for Social Workers, Healthcare Professionals, and Community Support Services

When I first read the table of contents, I was a bit unimpressed. Every chapter sounded the same. I am glad to learn that my suspicions were unfounded.This book notes that the majority of the small work on older gay men and lesbians focuses on those between the ages of 40 and 50. Thus, REAL gay seniors are ignored or understudied. Many of the chapters note that those studies done on older gays tend to focus on middle-class, white men. They actually don't do much to break this tendency, but I appreciate that they do point out this phenomenon.Unfortunately, one can, at times, get lost in the regression analyses, ANOVAs, and all that technical stuff most of us have forgotten since taking statistics in college. Still, this book does a good job of speculating on the ups and downs of gay seniors. On the one hand, older gay men may have more stress because they don't have children to care for them and many of their friends have died from AIDS-related complications. On the other hand, maybe older gay men and lesbians survive aging better than their heterosexual counterparts because they have faced, and hopefully conquered, homophobia. There are many good points in this book like that.I appreciated the chapter on Norway for its cross-cultural comparison. However, Scandinavia has a long history of pro-gay and pro-feminist stances. It wasn't a really good comparative point. I hope some could do the same study and transplant it to South Africa, Singapore, Brazil, or somewhere that is heterogeneous and has strong homophobia.Historians such as George Chauncey and John D'Emilio have worked hard to say that pre-Stonewall life was not as terrible as post-Stonewall gay generations may imagine. However, none of that great work is cited here.This book is really for psychotherapists and sociologists more than for everyday gay folk. But I appreciate their effort.