Historical and generational forces in the Iridescent Life Course of bisexual women, men, and gender diverse older adults (2022)

Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, Sarah Jen, Theresa Clark, Hyun-Jun Kim, Hailey Jung, & Jayn Goldsen

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This study takes a first step toward understanding key life events and experiences in the lives of bisexual older adults in the U.S, and is the first study to include in-depth information on bisexuals age 80 and older.

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Average age

Invisible Generation (87.8)
Silenced Generation (69.1)
Pride Generation (56.7)

Transgender

4.23%
20.02%
36.8%

≤ 200% FPL

77.73%
38.83%
46.45%

Living alone

88.19%
61.96%
37.9%

High school or less

66.09%
24.62%
25.72%

Data from Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study (NHAS), a study of 2450 sexual and gender diverse older adults.

The Iridescent Life Course

The timing and interplay of life events with historical times and intersectional identities is critical to understanding the experiences of differing generations. The Iridescent Life Course was applied in this study to asses the varied, fluid, and intersection life experiences rather than situating bisexual lives within a restrictive, homogenous, and heteronormative life course as in the past.

The Invisible Generation

The Invisible Generation (Born in 1934 or earlier​)

The Invisible Generation grew up and came of age during the Great Depression and Second World War. The eldest of bisexuals living today experienced a world characterized by invisibility, with language of same-sex attraction and behavior emerging and policies becoming increasingly restrictive.

Identity Affirmation

Invisible Generation (3.91)
Silenced Generation (5.07)
Pride Generation (5.02)

Measured on a 6-point Likert scale.

Outness

Invisible Generation (3.90)
Silenced Generation (5.56)
Pride Generation (7.25)

Measured as a rating from 1 to 10.

Identity development & outness

The Invisible Generation reported the lowest rates of identity affirmation and lowest levels of outness.

Bisexual men in particular were less likely to be out and reporter higher rates of identity stigma and lower rates of identity affirmation than bisexual women.

Invisible Generation (29.9%)
Silenced Generation (2.6%)
Pride Generation (9.2%)

More likely to never have been married

The Invisible Generation were significantly more likely to have never married than their younger counterparts.

Invisible Generation (5.15%)
Silenced Generation (37.18%)
Pride Generation (34.63%)

Strength and resilience

Despite higher rates of chronic conditions and physical impairments, as would be expected for the oldest generation, the Invisible Generation was the least likely to experience depression.

The Silenced Generation

The Silenced Generation (Born between 1935 and 1949)

The Silenced Generation was born during the years surrounding the Second World War and came of age during McCarthyism and the ensuing Lavender Scare. In 1952, the American Psychiatric association listed homosexuality as a "sociopathic personality disturbance" in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Higher average age of identity awareness

The Silenced Generation recognized their identity approximately 6-7 years later in life than both the younger and older generations.

Silenced Generation: 27
Invisible Generation: 20
Pride Generation: 21

Higher rates of different-sex marriage

Among bisexuals, a different-sex marriage does not necessarily indicate hiding or denying identity, but rather an important life experience within the sequencing of their life course.

This experience may, in fact, have been protective as the Silenced Generation also reported the lowest rates of identity-related stigma.

Silenced Generation (79.60%)
Invisible Generation (62.71%)
Pride Generation (51.55%)

The Pride Generation

The Pride Generation (Born between 1950 and 1964​)

The Pride Generation came of age at the time of the Stonewall Rebellion, often considered the beginning of the modern day LGBTQ+ rights movement in the US. This movement, alone with the Civil Rights and Women's movements gained traction as increasing numbers of people openly claimed their identities and fought for their rights. By 1996, 23 million global cases of HIV had been recorded and across the generations many lost their lives and social networks were depleted.

Hiring Discrimination

Pride Generation (33.46%)
Invisible Generation (1.8%)
Silenced Generation (9.75%)

Property Damage

Pride Generation (29.79%)
Invisible Generation (1.8%)
Silenced Generation (6.17%)

More likely to experience discrimination

Along with the social movements of the 60s and 70s came regressive push back, and increasing visibility often resulted in overt harassment and violence. The Pride Generation was more likely to experience all forms of discrimination and victimization, including damage to property, hiring discrimination, hassled by the police, and sexual violence.

Sexual Violence

Pride Generation (21.37%)
Invisible Generation (14.5%)
Silenced Generation (12.76%)

Hassled by Police

Pride Generation (30.27%)
Invisible Generation (16.15%)
Silenced Generation (6.09%)

A History of Bisexuality in the U.S.

  • 1892 – The word “bisexual” was first used in its modern sense by the American neurologist Charles G Chaddock to describe someone who engaged in sexual activity with both male and female partners. His 1892 translation of Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis was one of the first books about sexual practices that studied homosexuality/bisexuality. During its time, it became the leading medico-legal textual authority on sexual pathology.
  • 1917 – Modified US immigration law banned “persons with abnormal sexual instincts” from entrance into the United States.
  • 1948 – Alfred Kinsey establishes the Kinsey Scale, suggesting a gradient of bisexuality between homosexual and heterosexual sexual attractions.
  • 1968 – Bi Alliance begins at the University of Minnesota. It offers groups for women, for men, and a newsletter.
  • 1969 – The Stonewall Rebellion, often considered the beginning of the LGBT modern day rights movement.
  • 1970 – Bisexual activist Brenda Howard is known as the “Mother of Pride” for her work in coordinating Stonewall Rebellion anniversary march. Howard also originated the idea for a week-long series of events which sparked the annual LGBT pride celebrations held around the world every June. Howard along with the bisexual activist Robert A Martin and gay activist L Craig Schoonmaker are credited with popularizing the word “Pride” to describe these festivities.
  • 1972 – The first Los Angeles Gay Pride March was organized in large part by Bill Beasley, a bisexual activist in both the LGBT and civil rights movements and a member of the Gay Liberation Front.
  • 1972 – The Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality, a public declaration of support for the bisexual movement was issued by a Quaker group called The Committee of Friends on Bisexuality. It was the first statement of support for bisexuality issued by an American religious assembly.
  • 1972 – The National Bisexual Liberation Group forms in New York and gains more than 5500 members within three years.
  • 1975 – Bi Forum is founded in New York, a social, educational, and support group to promote awareness of bisexual issues. Membership peaked in 1980 with more than 200 members and several thousand individuals on their mailing list.
  • 1976 – Harriet Levi and Maggi Rubenstein founded the San Francisco Bisexual Center to offer counseling and social services in the Bay Area and eventually becomes the longest operating bisexual community center in the country. They published a newsletter, The Bi Monthly, from 1976 to 1984.
  • 1978 – Dr Fritz Klein introduced the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid in his book, The Bisexual Option in which he analyzed and explained the nature of bisexuality and bisexual clients.
  • 1983 – Bisexual activists Autumn Courtney, Lani Ka’ahumanu, Arlene Krantz, David Lourea, Bill Mack, Alan Rockway, and Maggi Rubenstein form BiPOL the first, and what would eventually become the oldest, political bisexual organization.
  • 1983 – The Boston Bisexual Women’s Network is founded and begins publishing their bi-monthly newsletter, BI Women.
  • 1984 – BiPOL sponsored the first bisexual rights rally, held outside the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco and featuring nine speakers from allied civil rights groups.
  • 1984 – The First East Coast Conference on Bisexuality was held at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work and attended by about 150 people.
  • 1984 – BiPOL activist Dr David Lourea convinces the San Francisco Department of Public Health to recognize bisexual men in their official statistics on HIV/AIDS.
  • 1985 – The Bisexual Resource Center (BRC) was founded. It is the oldest nationally focused bisexual organization in the US.
  • 1987 – A group of 75 bisexual people participated in the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights and this event triggers the founding of the North American Bisexual Network, the first national bisexual organization, which later changed its name to BiNet USA.
  • 1987 – Newsweek describes bisexual men as “the ultimate pariahs” of the AIDS epidemic, and Alan Rockway, as a bi activist, person living with AIDS, and member of BiPOL is quoted speaking out against the narrative.
  • 1988 – Founder of BiNet USA, Gary North, publishes Bisexuality: News, Views, and Networking, the first nationally distributed bisexual newsletter.
  • 2001 – The American Psychological Association (APA) releases their Guidelines on Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients stating that “homosexuality and bisexuality are not a mental illness.”
  • 2007 – Development of the report Bisexual Health: An introduction and model practices for HIV/STI Prevention Programming with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Fenway Health.
  • 2008 – Kate Brown was elected as the Oregon Secretary of State in the 2008 elections, becoming America’s first openly bisexual statewide officeholder.
  • 2011 – San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission released a report on bisexual visibility, titled Bisexual Invisibility: Impacts and Regulations. This was the first time any governmental body released such a report. The report showed, among other things that self-identified bisexuals made up the largest single population within the LGBT community in the United States.
  • 2012 – Kyrsten Sinema became first elected openly bisexual member of Congress (US Representative).
  • 2013 – On Celebrate Bisexuality Day (or Bisexual Pride/Bi Visibility Day), the White House hosted a meeting between about 30 bisexual advocates and government officials to discuss issues relevant to the bisexual community, the first bi-specific event ever hosted by the White House.
  • 2014 – The Bisexual Resource Center declares March 2014 as Bisexual Health Awareness Month including the first social media campaign on health disparities of the bisexual community. The theme of the campaign is: “Bi the Way, Our Health Matters Too!”
  • 2014 – The book Bisexuality: Making the Invisible Visible in Faith Communities, by Marie Alford-Harkey and Debra W Haffner, was published, the first of its kind.
  • 2016 – Kate Brown becomes the first openly bisexual governor in the United States.
  • 2018 – Mike Jacobs became the first sitting judge in the United States to come out as bisexual.
  • 2018 – Kyrsten Sinema became the first openly bisexual person to win a major party nomination to run for a US Senate seat and win election.

Additional research is needed to better understand the lives, contexts, and outcomes unique to bisexual adults. Incorporating bisexual-specific historical context offers much needed and often overlooked factors that influence aging and life course experiences. When the diverse nature of bisexual lives are better understood, we can develop, design, and evaluate interventions to address the distinct needs of bisexual people and their families.

Recommended citation: Fredriksen-Goldsen, K. I., Jen, S., Clark, T., Kim, H.-J., Jung, H., Goldsen, J. (2022). Historical and generational forces in the Iridescent Life Course of bisexual women, men, and gender diverse older adults. Sexualities, 25(1–2), 132–156. doi:10.1177/1363460720947313

© Goldsen Institute 2023, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

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