Queer Gerontology: Principles for Advancing Rigor and Justice

Gerontology has advanced greatly in recent decades in its attention to the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and additional sexual and gender diverse (LGBTQ+) people. To this end, scholars have argued for a queering of our understanding of the life course and aging futures. Others have called for the queering of gerontology itself. We argue that a vision of queer gerontology—framed in 5 principles—can promote rigorous advancement in our scholarship around aging as well as transforming our approaches to knowledge development and building scholarly communities based on an ethic of care. Grounded in historical waves of LGBTQ+ aging literature and our own experiences in this scholarly area, we present and discuss five principles of queer gerontology, as a means of building guidance for and solidarity in the study of LGBTQ+ aging. We argue that these principles will foster greater diversity and creativity in visions of later life, thereby promoting inclusion and justice for LGBTQ+ older adults, but also for all people as we age.