La homosexualidad en las personas mayores: vivenciando narrativas en torno a las discriminaciones y prácticas resilientes

Abstract

Older people are unified as a social group which is, however, made up of very diverse realities. The multiple realities of this collective impact on the aging process itself and the ways of responding. In this article, we discuss the experiences of homosexual older men. We are particularly interested in studying forms of discrimination based on their identity and sexual orientation, age and corporeality, as well as resilient coping strategies. Based on a qualitative approach, we conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with gay men over 55 years of age residing in the provinces of Almería and Murcia. The main results reflect that respondents have experienced situations of discrimination throughout their life experiences. Rejection events occur in family settings, close contexts as friendships and within the gay community itself. In this last aspect, discriminatory facts related to homonormativity are verified, among which stand out the gerontophobia, the abject bodies and the sissyphobia, aka plumophobia. Faced with this rejection, the people themselves forge strategies aimed at making their identity and sexual orientation visible. The self-acceptance and the self-concept reinforced in each case by near supports are postulated as main resilient mechanisms.