Vanessa and all-
Very interesting question- thank you for raising it.
The challenge of what does it mean to successfully age, and how as researchers do we conceptualize "successful aging" for marginalized populations, including LGBT older adults, is considerable. In my current research on people aging with HIV/AIDS, relying on frameworks of successful aging that posit lack of physical and mental health distress is ineffective. I look forward to a lively discussion about this question at GSA in the symposium that you are presenting your below research as part of:
Transgender Perspectives on Risk, Resilience and Successful Aging.
This symposium will highlight transgender aging experiences as distinct, and not simply a mirror of "LGB" (lesbian, gay, bisexual) aging experiences, within which they are often presented. The symposium will present four scholarly papers grounded in a range of methodological approaches that explore risks and resilience in this population, differences by sexual orientation, and the conceptualization of successful aging and minority stress within national and global samples of transgender older adults.
The individual presentations within the symposium are titled:
- Gender Transitions in Later Life: A Queer Perspective on Successful Aging
- Older Transgender and Older Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Adults: Differing Mechanisms of Risk
- It's Not All Scylla and Charybdis: Successful Aging and Resilience in the Transgender Community
- Sample Characteristic Differences by Sexual Orientation from the Trans Met Life Survey
Session Title: Rainbow Research Symposium: Transgender Perspectives on Risk, Resilience and Successful Aging
Date: November 6, 2014
Time: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
See you at GSA!
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Kristen Porter
PhD Candidate
University of Massachusetts - Boston
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-09-2014 02:16 PM
From: Vanessa Fabbre
Subject: LGBT Successful Aging
Through my research with transgender older adults I have found that many struggle to find liberation from society's expectations, which reflects notions of "queer failure" discussed in fields outside of gerontology. I will present findings from my research with transgender older adults next month at the annual meeting and draw attention to the role that "queer failure" may play in growth and development for gender and sexual minorities in later life.
I am interested in people's perspectives on the usefulness of this idea for gerontological perspectives on successful aging, specifically with respect to gender and sexual minorities.
I've also included a link to an article in The Gerontologist on this topic.
Vanessa
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Vanessa Fabbre
Assistant Professor
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis MO
(773) 428-3873
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