Occupational involvement of older gay men

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Older people often face discrimination and stigma across different societies. Older gay men may confront a dual stigma, being targeted for their age and sexual orientation. Such stigmatization frequently and unjustly subjects this group to prevailing social expectations, affecting their occupational involvement.

Objective:

To investigate the occupational involvement of older gay men.

Method:

This exploratory, qualitative study involved eight participants aged between 61 and 69 years. Participants were recruited using the snowball sampling technique. Narratives were gathered using a semi-structured script, and the resulting data were assessed through thematic analysis.

Findings:

Analysis of the participants’ narratives revealed five dominant themes concerning the relationship between aging as a gay individual and involvement in occupation: self-care; mobility; support networks; the interplay of repression, resistance, and expression of sexuality; and life planning.

Conclusion:

The process of aging for gay men is intricately linked to their occupations, both in past and present contexts, as well as their aspirations for the future. Notably, these occupations and aspirations encompass practices related to maintaining a youthful appearance, urban accessibility, the forging of homosexual identities, nurturing emotional and social connections, confronting repression and violence, and reflecting on the historical and personal challenges presented by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational science
• aging
• sexual and gender minorities
• male homosexuality
• activities of daily living

View translated version:

Envolvimento ocupacional de homens gays idosos

Translation Disclosure

This article was translated from the original Portuguese by Ricardo Petrilli, a Brazilian professional translator, in consultation with the authors and JOS Associate Editor Dr. Lilian Magalhães, after completion of review, revision, and acceptance for publication in the Journal of Occupational Science. It is also available in Portuguese from https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rocc20

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 ‘Posto 9’ (Station 9) refers to a spot in Ipanema Beach, located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is a part of the beach historically frequented by the gay community and is surrounded by a variety of bars, nightclubs, and saunas, among others, catering to this population.

2 The military dictatorship in Brazil was an authoritarian regime that began with a military coup, on March 31, 1964, with the deposition of President João Goulart. The regime, which was one of the cruellest periods in the country’s history, established censorship of the press, restrictions on political rights, and police persecution of opponents of the regime, bringing consequences in the economic, social, political, and cultural fields (Lara & Silva, 2015).