Abstract
Research on lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) ageing has burgeoned in the past decade in Western settings such as Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. Based on the emerging research about older gay men in Hong Kong, this article adds two important aspects to the ongoing agendas for global research into LGB ageing and later life. First, it further conceptualizes and subdivides Hong Kong's older gay men into three subgroups who hold varying levels of salience of sexual identity in their life and thus have different later life concerns. Second, to contribute to the wider LGB ageing research, I argue that at the same single time point, older LGB people in different parts of the world may hold very different understandings of their sexual identity. In some parts of the world, sexual identities may matter less for older LGB people, and thus, such older LGB people may accordingly have very different later life concerns.
Research on lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) ageing has burgeoned in the past decade in Western settings such as Australia, Canada, the UK and the US, and highlights the oftentimes adverse cultural, social, policy and legal environments that older non-heterosexuals face (King et al., 2018, 2019). As the LGB ageing research literature matures, there is a call for understanding LGB ageing in a global context. To what extent do findings from the literature on LGB ageing in the Western context apply to different parts of the world? The purpose of this article is to start adding to that dialogue to understand the differences and similarities of older LGB lives across national contexts (Fredriksen Goldsen and de Vries, 2019). It has been argued that because older non-heterosexuals are more likely to be single and childless as compared to their heterosexual counterparts, they may have more limited social support in later life. For older LGB people in a same-sex relationship which may not be legally recognized, later life issues such as access to pension benefits, medical visitation and decision-making rights and inheritance arrangements are important issues for themselves as well as for their partner and other family members (Westwood, 2016). It has also been consistently found that older LGB people fear discrimination in receiving end-of-life and palliative care (e.g. Almack et al., 2015), as the healthcare system is generally not culturally competent enough to be inclusive of the needs of sexual minorities, resulting in some older LGB people feeling compelled to go back into the closet in institutionalized settings in the face of possible discrimination and negative treatment by care home staff or other residents.
In this commentary, I argue that LGB ageing and later life concerns may present themselves differently across historical, social and cultural contexts, using Hong Kong as an example. In particular, I argue that at the same single time point, older LGB people in different parts of the world may hold very different understandings of their sexual identity. In some parts of the world, sexual identities may matter less for older LGB people. I present this argument in contrast with the aforementioned research literature which highlights that older LGB people’s later life concerns in places like the UK are very much related to their sexual identity (King, 2016). I base my argument on the emerging research about older gay men in Hong Kong. The lack of discussion of older lesbian and bisexual people in this article is because such research is still in the early stages. I argue that for the current cohort of older gay men in Hong Kong, sexual identity is much less salient than in Western contexts. This can be attributed to two reasons.
First, for the current cohort of older gay men in Hong Kong, development of a positive sexual identity was challenging and uncommon because of the socio-legal history of Hong Kong. Because of British colonization, in Hong Kong same-sex sexual acts between consenting male adults were criminalized from 1842 and only decriminalized in 1991. This means that an older gay man who is 60 years old in Hong Kong at the time of writing would have spent the first 32 years of his life under the historical backdrop that his same-sex sexual activities were criminalized. Compare this with a 60-year-old older gay man in England: he would only have spent the first eight years of his life during the time when same-sex sexual activities were criminalized in England. Also, the Gay Liberation Front, the first gay liberation group in England, was set up in London in 1970. Comparatively, in Hong Kong, the first gay and lesbian non-governmental organizations were only set up in the 1990s. This means that two older gay men, both aged 60 in 2019, would have experienced different sexual environments in Hong Kong and England throughout their lifetimes. However, in addition to the legal context, there are also other social forces at play, including the family culture, as I will outline.
Second, many older gay men of the current cohort in Hong Kong did not develop a sexual identity because of family biopolitics (Ong, 1993). As Kong (2012: 907) put it, many of the older gay men in Hong Kong he interviewed ‘sacrificed their own self-development by suppressing their same-sex desires, marrying in order to contribute to the heterosexual family economy. Like the working daughters, they did not really regret their decisions, beginning to explore the gay world later in life’. In Kong’s study of older gay men in Hong Kong, he found that ‘half of the respondents are now living alone, through widowhood, separation or divorce from their wives, or have never married. The other half live with their family members – wives, children, and/or siblings’ (Kong, 2012: 906). This is in line with Chou’s argument (2001) that sexual identity may not be wholly compatible with Chinese culture. He commented that sexual identity politics ‘is predicated upon individualism and confrontational politics where the right to one’s body is of central cultural importance’ (Chou, 2001: 28). He argued that in Chinese culture nobody is a discrete, isolated being; rather, everyone becomes a full person only in the context of family and social relationships.
Given this historical and cultural background, I argue that older gay men in Hong Kong hold diverse understandings over the salience of sexual identity in their life. I conceptualize older gay men in Hong Kong into three sub-groups, who hold differing levels of salience of sexual identity in their life and thus have different later-life concerns.
Older gay men who prioritize family over sexual identity
The first group of older gay men in Hong Kong can be categorized as those who prioritize family over sexual identity. They prioritize fulfilling the family role of being a filial son and a dutiful husband over that of their sexual self, at least for the first half of their lives. They live with their family members – wives, children, grandchildren and/or siblings. They usually have extramarital sexual encounters which may or may not develop into longer-term relationships. Their opposite-sex partner (often their wife) may either not know of their attraction to people of the same sex and extramarital encounters, or know of their attraction to people of the same sex and extramarital encounters but tolerate or accept them as a way of saving face and keeping the family unit together and ‘preserving harmony’.
It is even questionable whether this group of same-sex attracted older men, or older men who are attracted to both sexes, would adopt the ‘gay’ or ‘bisexual’ labels. Some of them indeed resist the ‘gay’ label and actively distance themselves from gay-related events or organizations. From a study on ageing and HIV in Hong Kong (Suen, under review a), I recall one heterosexually married older man in Hong Kong who has sex with men lamenting recent progressive developments of gay rights in Hong Kong – he thought this would spotlight gay issues and ‘people like him’ may become more easily recognizable in society. Others in the group of same-sex attracted older people, or older people who are attracted to both sexes, may be rather ambiguous about their sexual identity label usage. For example, another heterosexually married older man in Hong Kong who has sex with men, from the same study (Suen, under review a), described himself as bisexual but becoming ‘increasingly gay’ as he grew older. For this group of ‘older gay men’, their later life concerns may not be too dissimilar to those of their heterosexual counterparts in Hong Kong.
Older gay men who prioritize their sexual identity
The second group of older gay men in Hong Kong can be categorized as those who prioritize their sexual identity. They have developed a strong sense of sexual identity even though they grew up under the colonization period of criminalization of same-sex sexual activities and strong familial pressure in Hong Kong. As observed in the media, two outspoken older gay men in Hong Kong who belong to the Gay and Grey group, which is a social support group for Hong Kong older tongzhi, can be described as such.
For this group of older gay men, their later life concerns may not be too dissimilar to those of their older gay counterparts in other parts of the world. The two outspoken older gay men in Hong Kong have shared in the media their feeling of loneliness of being old, gay and single. They mentioned that being a grandparent is a commonly shared status among older people in Hong Kong which they do not have access to. They also expressed the fear of getting sick, and worries over the medical services that they would receive should their health deteriorate, especially as there is no legislation against discrimination in service provision on the grounds of sexual orientation in Hong Kong. They have also advocated in the media and the Legislative Council for a ‘rainbow care home’ so that their later life concerns can be better catered for.
Older gay men who grew up elsewhere and experience later life in Hong Kong
The third group of older gay men in Hong Kong grew up elsewhere and experience later life in Hong Kong. As Hong Kong is an Asian hub for the financial sector, some gay men grew up elsewhere but later moved to Hong Kong for work and have stayed there into their later life (see Robinson, 2011). They may have already developed strong sexual identities before coming to Hong Kong. For example, I interviewed Oliver (see Suen under review b), who moved from England and lived in Hong Kong. He saw being an expatriate in Hong Kong as bringing with it white privilege which acted as a shield from homophobia and ageism. However, although he saw cultural and social belonging to Hong Kong, the policy and legal reality that his same-sex relationship is not legally recognized in Hong Kong produces anxiety over the future of care and end-of-life concerns for him and his partner. This also brought contradictions and tension in his views towards ageing abroad or returning home. This is a relatively overlooked group and I explore the topic further elsewhere (see Suen under review b).
In conclusion, this commentary adds two important aspects to the ongoing agendas for global research into LGB ageing and later life. First, it further conceptualizes and subdivides Hong Kong’s older gay men into three subgroups who hold varying levels of salience of sexual identity in their life and thus have different later life concerns. It shall be reiterated that the later life concerns of future cohorts of older gay men in Hong Kong may well be different from those discussed in this article. Second, to contribute to the wider LGB ageing research, I argue that at the same single time point, older LGB people in different parts of the world may hold very different understandings of their sexual identity. In some parts of the world, sexual identities may matter less for older LGB people, and thus, such older LGB people may accordingly have very different later life concerns.
Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The writing of the article was partially supported by funding from the General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Project number: 14607717), with additional funding support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
