AGE AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION CATEGORIES COMBINATIONS: THE INTERSECTIONAL INVISIBILITY OF ELDERLY GAY MEN

Theoretical and empirical efforts have deeply analyzed the social categorization and stereotyping of individual members who display single identity at a time (i.e., membership). Recently, different theoretical models have been put forward with regard to the way perceivers combine distinct categories in the attempt to solve the complexity of individuals displaying multiple bases for social categorization (i.e., intersectionality). The intersection between age-related categories (young and elderly) and those related to sexual orientation (homosexual and heterosexual) seems to be made up of categories that have no common stereotypes. The current research project has focused on the combination of age and sexual orientation categories referring to men as the generative mechanism of the invisibility of older gay men. Indeed, elderly gay men run the risk of being invisible among older people in general, as their particular needs have not always been acknowledged by, for instance, policymakers and healthcare services (Harrison, 2006; Kia et al., 2019). In addition, elderly gay men are invisible in the gay community, whose media representation (Jankowski et al., 2014; Saucier & Caron, 2008) is very much tied to the concept of youth (Bennett & Thompson, 1991; Hajek & Giles, 2002). Older gay people also are invisible as they likely refrain from coming out after living their whole lives under the pressure to pass as heterosexual (Harris & Fiske, 2006; Harrison, 2006). Together, these studies acknowledge that elderly gay men are invisible (i.e., impossible to be seen) in society, metaphorically speaking, among the population. The current research was aimed at studying the cognitive processes that enact the cognitive invisibility of elderly gay men. Specifically, the current research project aimed at a) extending the intersectional perspective to the analysis of the combination of age and sexual orientation categories; b) understanding the cognitive processes involved in the perception of this specific case of sexual orientation by age categories intersection; c) developing a mixed method approach to the study of category intersections.