Troubling Identities? Examining Older Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People's Membership Categorisation Work and its Significance

My concern in this chapter is to consider the significance of processes of identity categorisation and to trouble taken-for-granted identifications related to sexuality and age that are manifested within the categorisation older LGB person. To do this I will be drawing on data that I collected as part of a local government scoping study. Through a close ‘reading’ of some of this data drawing on membership categorisation analysis (MCA) I wish to consider the notion that we can ever speak straightforwardly of older LGB people; in essence, I want to query (indeed queery) the figure of the older LGB person. My argument in this chapter is that it is necessary to do this in order to avoid the re-inscription of heteronormative power structures and presumptions through a failure to recognise the complex processes of (dis)identification that occur when people are hailed into existence in such as way i.e. as an aged-sexual subject. To consider: what identity work takes place in such circumstances? What is gained and what is lost? In order to address this problematic in this chapter, I firstly sketch out the figure of the older LGB person who has emerged from research, policy and practice. Secondly, I then draw on a number of theoretical perspectives within the social sciences, which call into question categories of identity, including those of age and sexuality. These perspectives are queer theory, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. I will explain how each perspective troubles taken-for-granted notions of identity and thirdly after explaining where my data emanates from, I employ these perspectives in a ‘reading’ of instances in my data where participants were positioned as particular aged and sexualised subjects. Finally, I consider the ramifications of this reading for understandings of the lives of older LGB people, including the implications for policy-makers and practitioners