Gay Grows Up

Abstract

This study is based upon qualitative research conducted with the Phoenix chapter of the Prime Timers, a social organization that offers older men in the gay community a space to communicate their general needs and desires. Using data collected through participant observation and informant interviews, the research demonstrates the ways in which the group's affiliates respond to queer sensibilities. The analysis argues that intergenerational communication is fettered by age stereotypes that generate communicative boundaries between young and old members of the gay community. The report then suggests that age-based breakdowns in communication prevalent in the gay community are further advanced by a difference in intergenerational approaches to survival.

Key Words:

• Queer
• age
• aging
• chicken
• intergenerational communication
• metaphors
• organizational communication
• passing
• troll