Hypervisibility: Toward a Conceptualization of LGBTQ Aging Hossein Kia 1 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract There remains a salient need to conceptualize les- bian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) aging as an area of study. Although the limited body of theoretical literature in this field has delineated systemic silence or invis- ibility as a prominent feature of marginalization among LGBTQ elders, this model does not appear to account for mechanisms of surveillance and control that often regulate sexuality and gender identity in old age. This paper represents a preliminary attempt at developing a framework of LGBTQ aging that addresses social processes in which queerness and gender variance are monitored and limited in later stages of the life course. The analysis is guided by the Foucauldian notion of neoliberal governmentality, which enables consider- ation of bodies of discourse and technologies of power that together drive these systemic phenomena in contemporary political and economic contexts. The paper concludes with implications of this analysis on theory and empirical inquiry in the field of LGBTQ aging. Keywords Queer . LGBTQ . Older adults . Seniors . Governmentality . Theory . Gerontology Introduction The experiences and realities of older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) adults remain largely unrec- ognized and unexamined in both theoretical and empirical bodies of social science literature (Brotman et al. 2015; Brown 2009; Eliason et al. 2010; Kimmel 2015; King 2014; Knauer 2011; Rose and Hospital 2015). However, several factors justify the need for attempts to conceptualize and more systematically study aging phenomena in sexual minorities and transgender populations. First, given the continued sa- lience of medicalized aging (Fishman et al. 2008; Lupton 2003), as well as the growing visibility of non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities among the elderly (Cahill 2007), it is possible to suggest that medical surveillance plays an increasingly influential role in limiting expressions of non- normative sexuality and gender identity in old age. Second, perhaps more importantly, in light of the recognized need for both the fields of queer theory and gerontology to address problems located at an ever more multifaceted intersection of identities and experiences, the development of theory that situates same-sex sexuality and gender non-conformity within the context of the life course may not only be pertinent, but also necessary (Brotman et al. 2015; Brown 2009; Kimmel 2015; Knauer 2011). This paper constitutes an attempt to con- ceptualize aging phenomena within communities self- identifying as BLGBTQ,^ hereon referred to interchangeably as Bqueer/trans^ for the purpose of convenience. In recogniz- ing the stigma-laden history of the word Bqueer^ in commu- nities of older LGBTQ adults, I explicitly delineate use of this label throughout the paper as an umbrella term that may ac- count for variability and fluidity in self-identification with LGBTQ categories among older sexual and gender minority adults (Brotman et al. 2015). Foucault’ s(2008) notion of governmentality, I will argue, can be used to conceptualize LGBTQ aging as a realm in which its subjects are rendered Bhypervisible^ to neoliberal systems of surveillance and control, which in turn serve to limit the expression of non-normative sexuality and gender identity in old age. The question of Bhow^ such hypervisibility * Hossein Kia hossein.kia@mail.utoronto.ca 1 Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, P. O. Box 21429, Toronto, ON M5T 0A1, Canada Sex Res Soc Policy DOI 10.1007/s13178-015-0194-9