Old and G(r)aying Together: Identity in a Low-Income Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing Facility

• In Event: 166 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Paper Session. Troubling Homonormativity: Thinking LGBT Intersectionally (co-sponsored with the Caucus on Transnational Approaches to Gender and Sexuality; and the LGBT Caucus)

Abstract

In this paper, I document the discursive boundary making practices of residents at Lambda Housing (LH), the first and only low income housing facility that caters to gay and lesbian elders. This group of elders, many marginalized throughout their lives because of their sexual orientation, have long struggled for continued legitimacy and recognition among peers and in the larger society. In old age, they now a cultural narrative of decline and social erasure. Gay and lesbians, the only sexualized group of older persons, are positioned contradictorily as both having and not having sexuality. Sexuality, even among gay and lesbian elders, is a contested topic. Residents often attempted to secure their own subject positions by delegitimizing “Others” to render themselves relationally more legitimate. Subgroups within LH built solidarity with one another by distancing themselves from others. Multiple and intersecting identities (e.g. sexuality, gender, age, class, and ethnicity) were highlighted or muted, symbolic boundaries made solid or porous. Respondents constituted themselves as belonging to LH by gossiping about and othering two groups, one, “the men in the lobby,” marked by gender and distinctive sexualization, and the other, “the Russians,” marked by presumed “straight” sexual orientation and ethnicity.

Author

• Louise Ly, University of California-Berkeley