Imagining Queer Time : The Ageing Experiences of Older Same-Sex Couples in Scotland

While there is a growing number of sociological studies looking at LGBTQ+ ageing, these mostly focus on the intersection of age and sexual identity, often leaving out the impact of lived experiences on the ageing process. Imagining Queer Time delves into the ageing experience of older same-sex couples in Scotland by studying the intersection of their past, present, and future, and by exploring their life stories in historical and political contexts.

Positioning the couples’ experiences within a UK-wide context of ageing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, Dora Jandric presents novel ideas on queer ageing and queer time with the context of older same-sex couples’ lived experiences. With implication beyond Scottish borders, this study explores the questions of belonging, time, and same-sex relationships and how they impact the ageing experience, offering a novel way of exploring queer time through the temporal narratives of older same-sex couples. Participant accounts highlight the role of the past and present in the couples’ imagination of the future, which is conceptualised through collective, interpersonal, and imagined relationships. Arguing for a closer examination of the relational aspect of personal biographies and the socio-historical contexts of people’s lives in studies about the experience of ageing in same-sex couples, the author gives voice to a (still) invisible population in ageing and sexuality studies.

Concluding that the interpersonal, collective, and imagined relationships the participants formed during their lifetimes allowed them to imagine the future as utopian, this work puts forward a new idea about what constitutes queer time and how older LGBTQ+ people are main actors in its creation.