The authors argue that unlike their younger counterparts, who experience their young adult development within a dual-identity or bicultural framework, older, African American, gay men experience their development through 3 distinct cultural perspectives. Using a constructivist framework, the authors explore this tricultural development and make recommendations regarding counseling services for this population.
This article addresses the counseling needs of older, African American, gay men (OAAGM). These men are a special population within the study of older homosexuals, who are already a minority population within the gay community. Yet, little has been written about the experiences of African American gay men or older gay men, in general, much less the experiences of OAAGM (Berger, 1996;Harris, 2003).
In the homosexual community, older gay men (i.e., those who are 55 years old or older) have been viewed as a homogeneous group or as reflections of stereotypes (Christian & Keefe, 1997;Wright, 2005). Berger (1996) wrote, "Much of the research on homosexuality, for instance, is based on samples which are biased in favor of white respondents who are relatively well educated and affluent" (p. 152). Little is known about OAAGM and their development, thus understanding their needs is important if human service professionals expect to provide gay-affirming services from a multicultural perspective.
Using the social constructivist perspective is effective as a basis for understanding the experience of African American men as a minoritiy group (i.e., racial) within a minority population (i.e., sexual orientation). This perspective stresses the importance of social interaction involving language, family, society, and culture on the development of an individual (Atwood, 1999;Shaw, 1999). Therefore, subjective interpretation of lifelong experience with racism and homoprejudice is critical to the active construction of the African American gay man's sense of self within a heterosexist world. Although being African American and gay has been addressed within a dual