Ageism and Heterosexism in African American LGBTQI+ Lives
Illustration by Valentina Talijan
How do coming of age and coming out affect older African Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender as they age? Black LGBTQI+ elders live at the intersection of multiple forms of bigotry and discrimination: being lesbian, gay, and/or trans in a heterosexist society; being a person of color in a racist society; and being old in a youth-worshipping society. This article tells the stories of lives lived and the very real problems of LGBTQI+ African Americans coming of age and how those experiences shaped their lives as they grew older.
