1. +
Gay Men’s Health and Identity
from a Life Course Perspective
Phillip L. Hammack
University of California, Santa Cruz

4. Gay = AIDS = Death

8. +
①
Gay men’s health: 2013
②
Gay men and the life course: 3 principles
③
Gay men and the life course: 5 generations
④
Implications for research, practice, and advocacy

9. +
Gay men’s health: 2013
HIV prevalence among gay
men, 2008 (%)
00
19
HIV+
HIV81
Source: NHSB Report, CDC, 2008

10. +
Gay men’s health: 2013
Major depression
prevalence, ages 50-69 (%)
00
17
Major
depression
83
Source: Institute of Medicine, 2011

11. +
Gay men’s health: 2013
Prevalence of suicide
attempts, ages 18-59 (%)
00
15.6
Suicide attempt
84.4
Source: Institute of Medicine, 2011

12. +
Gay men’s health: 2013

Minority stress processes

Victimization and harassment

Stigma experiences and expectations

Internalized homophobia

Effects of these processes on the body

Eating disorders

Substance abuse

Cancer

13. +
Gay men’s health: 2013
Primary health research focus, 2013
16.67%
HIV/RSB
Substance Abuse
7.14%
Mental and Physical Health/WellBeing
8.33%
67.86%
Other (e.g., Stigma, Relationships,
SelfImage, Identity, Disclosure, Spirituality
, Homophobia, Minority Stress)
Source: Hammack et al., in preparation (84 published or in-press empirical studies in 2013; key words
gay men, health)

14. +
Gay men’s health: 2013
HIV prevalence among
gay men, 2008 (%)
Primary health research
focus, 2013
00
19
16.67%
HIV+
HIV81
HIV/RSB
7.14%
8.33%
67.86%

15. +
Gay men’s health: 2013
Population focus, 2013
US-White Majority (>50% White)
26.34%
26.30%
US-Multiracial (<50% White)
Australian
13.16%
34.20%
Source: Hammack et al., in preparation (84 published or in-press empirical studies in 2013; key words
gay men, health)

16. +
Gay men’s health: 2013
HIV prevalence among
gay men, 2008 (%)
Primary health research
focus, 2013
00
19
16.67%
HIV+
HIV81
HIV/RSB
7.14%
8.33%
67.86%

20. “…you are asking to die….”
“…we can’t
carry the burden
of everyone who
died before
us….”

21. +
①
Gay men’s health: 2013
②
Gay men and the life course: 3 principles
③
Gay men and the life course: 5 generations
④
Implications for research, practice, and advocacy

22. +
The life course paradigm

23. +
Gay men and the life course:
3 principles
1.
Historical time and place

24. +
Gay men and the life course:
3 principles
2.
Linked lives

25. +
Gay men and the life course:
3 principles
3.
Human agency

26. +
①
Gay men’s health: 2013
②
Gay men and the life course: 3 principles
③
Gay men and the life course: 5 generations
④
Implications for research, practice, and advocacy

27. +
Gay men and the life course:
5 generations
1.
The Stigma Generation
• Born in the 1930s
• Today in their 70s and 80s
• Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Movement
• Declassification of homosexuality as
mental illness
• AIDS epidemic

28. +
Gay men and the life course:
5 generations
2.
The Stonewall
Generation
• Born in the 1940s
• Today in their 60s and 70s
• Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Movement
at the height of adulthood
• Gay culture in the 1970s
• AIDS

29. +
Gay men and the life course:
5 generations
3.
The AIDS 1 Generation
• Born in the 1950s and 1960s
• Experienced adolescence and early
adulthood post-Stonewall
• Today in their 40s, 50s, and early 60s
• Hardest hit by AIDS
• Significant cultural trauma

30. +
Gay men and the life course:
5 generations
4.
The AIDS 2 Generation
•
Born in the 1970s
•
Childhood and adolescence during AIDS
•
Gay identity = gay sex = death
•
Health and mental health support
•
Emergence of Internet
•
Treatment advances for HIV
•
From AIDS to marriage equality
•
Today in our 30s and 40s

31. +
Gay men and the life course:
5 generations
5.
The Post-AIDS/Marriage
Equality Generation
•
Born in the 1980s and 1990s
•
Today in their teens and 20s
•
Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
•
Gay sex ≠ death
•
Cultural support for sexual orientation
diversity
•
GSAs and Modern Family

32. +
①
Gay men’s health: 2013
②
Gay men and the life course: 3 principles
③
Gay men and the life course: 5 generations
④
Implications for research, practice, and advocacy

33. +
Implications for research, practice &
advocacy
 Reconsider
surveying our
practices and charting our “norms”
 Reconsider
the standard scientific
paradigm
 “Thick
description” and
interpretation, not surveillance
 Whose
voices?

34. +
Implications for research, practice &
advocacy

Historical sensitivity and reflexivity

Health-related attitudes and practices in
generational perspective

Awareness of one’s own generational position
and its impact on practice

35. +
Implications for research, practice &
advocacy

36. +
Acknowledgments

Terry Trussler, Rick Marchand & Olivier Ferlatte

At UC Santa Cruz: James E. Lykens

At UCLA: Ilan Meyer

At Columbia University: David Frost

In memoriam: Bertram J. Cohler (1938-2012)