Aging with HIV: Historical and Intra-Community Differences in Experience of Aging with HIV |
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| Authors: | Wallace A. Robinson MSW Mary S. Petty PhD Cindy Patton PhD Helen Kang SSHRC |
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| Affiliation: | 1. St. Paul's Hospital Immunodeficiency Clinic , Vancouver E-mail: healthlab@gmail.com;2. St. Paul's Hospital Immunodeficiency Clinic , Vancouver;3. Department of Women's Studies and Department of Sociology &4. Anthropology;5. Health Research and Methods Training Facility, Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre , Vancouver;6. Health Research and Methods Training Facility, Simon Fraser University , Vancouver |
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| Abstract: | Gay men living with HIV/AIDS face a complex of health issues, including those associated with the aging process, long-term HIV infection (25 years or more), and side effects from Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART). If aging can increase marginalization, this is more likely for the aging HIV positive gay man, who is already marginalized for being queer and living with a stigmatizing disease. This article presents findings from a study of a long-running HIV support group. It locates the members, all gay men living with HIV, in a specific historical and political context to explore how feelings of loss and the struggle to sustain community affect long-term survivors and other older HIV+ gay men. We identify specific challenges presented by aging for men who contracted HIV early in the epidemic, contrasting them with those faced by men infected with the virus later in life. While both groups appear to struggle with a vision of what life could have been, had AIDS not forced loss and change, they also celebrate the community their shared plight has enabled. |
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| Keywords: | Agin AIDS Antiretroviral Therapy body image Canada gay men HIV long-term survivors support group Vancouver |
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