Single LBQ women of the baby boom planning for later life

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to understand how sexual minority women of the baby boom cohort viewed their social connections and planned for their later years. Framed by feminist and life course perspectives, this study used semi-structured interviews and constructivist grounded theory. Thirteen single sexual minority baby boom women from across the U.S. were interviewed. The women were active in their communities and viewed their social connections with local community, family of origin and of choice. The women had formal and informal plans for their future, anticipating the possibilities of aging-related issues, related to housing and support.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• bisexual
• lesbian
• queer
• relationships
• singlehood

Acknowledgments

I thank Katherine R. Allen for her helpful comments and support on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Singlehood for this study was understood as not being in a long-term romantic relationship with or without legal standing. Sexual minority is being used as an umbrella term to capture multiple sexual orientation identities when people do not identify as exclusively heterosexual. While this research was open to women who identified as women, no, trans individuals participated. Thus, LBQ and sexual minority is used for women who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to women in this study.

2. LGBTQ+ refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and additional sexual and gender minority identities. LGBTQ+ is used when the ideas and research are inclusive of multiple sexual and gender identities.

3. Women who identify as women and were assigned female at birth.