Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

In rural settings, LGBTQ+ elders face distinct challenges that differ from urban situations with more direct access to medical facilities, social services, and supportive clinicians and organizations. This case study examines needs and resources in a region of the conservative U.S. South where an extensive, multi-generational community of LGBTQ+ individuals dispersed over several rural counties have a deep history of self-organizing to provide care for elders and the sick. Beginning with the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, they have experimented with various non-hierarchical structures and strategies to organize care outside the biological family, for people with diverse backgrounds and limited financial resources, many of whom are HIV+ and need expensive drugs and compatible medical and dental treatment. Interviews with caregivers, patients, and community members, and participant observation in community gatherings, discussions, and home visits, trace this evolving history. Issues that come to the fore include processes of inclusion and exclusion, notions of fairness and reciprocity, and pragmatics of communication, acephalous social organization, and uses of skills and technologies. While much of this story is specific to this unusual queer community, their experiences offer insights for the growing populations of elders who cannot rely solely on their children in old age.