The relationship between aging and the psychosocial adjustment of homosexual individuals has been neglected as a topic of research. Accurate information about the aging and adaptation of homosexuals is important, not only to correct pervasive stereotypical notions, but also for the general understanding of the social context of sexual diversity and the health-care needs of an important portion of the aging population.

Aging homosexual individuals are variously described as lonely, isolated from other homosexual males because of the over-emphasis on youth in the gay subculture, thinking of themselves as middle-aged and old before their heterosexual counterparts, unable to sustain close relationships, dysfunctional, unhappy, and lacking in self-esteem (Kelly, 1977; Berger, 1980; Pope and Schulz, 1991; McDougall, 1993). Descriptive studies, conducted mostly during the 1970s and 1980s, do not support these stereotypical beliefs. Weinberg and Williams (1975), who analyzed questionnaire data from a subsample of men aged over 45 as part of a survey of over 2000 homosexual volunteers, found that younger and older respondents did not differ on several measures of personal adjustment. Older men had more stable self-concepts and were less likely to desire psychiatric treatment. Kelly (1977) also noted that most older participants in his investigation reported satisfactory social and sexual lives. Berger (1980), in a study of 112 homosexual men aged 41–77, found that the majority of respondents lived in stable relationships, had many friends, scored within the normative range in all measures of psychological adaptation and life satisfaction and that older men, in comparison to younger homosexuals, had lower levels of depression and psychosomatic symptoms.