I think its pretty cool that this group of bloggers and readers got a quick grasp on the complexity of issues that may have shaped the responses to these polls. It’s one reason I read most of the comments that go along with these posts.

You don’t have to like my thoughts on the rate of death of older gay men. It happens to be true that we lost almost an entire generation of gay men during the AIDS crisis origin of the 80′s. My entire group of friends is dead, except for me, that’s 12 out of 13 people gone. Hundreds of thousands of gay men died during that time period, and they wer mostly of one age group.

My theory does NOT correspond to that of Cameron, in that I talk about ONE SPECIFIC TIME PERIOD OF DEATHS, I do not speak of ALL gay men, and the generations comming AFTER the advent of AIDS. The age groups I speak of are factually lessened by the deaths from AIDS during the eighties. Camerons ideas are for the ENTIRE gay male population, I don’t see the numbers changing for the younger groups as I see them having changed from the older groups. The comparrison to Cameron, in my view, is apples to oranges. I’m speaking of a specific time period in the USA where we lost an entire generation to a disease no one knew anything about, Cameron speaks to ALL gay men, not just that generation.

I also tried to touch on what I see as the issue for those increased I don’t knows, there was a certain propriety held by people of certain ages in the USA, where any questions about sex or sexuality are simply refused, some age groups simply find it un-acceptable to discuss that stuff with a pollster.

I’m not sure what graph YOU are looking at, but I am looking at the one at the top of the article provided, it shows a decrease in the yes answer across the age groups, and shows an increase in the no answer across the age groups, except for the slight increase in the over 50 and another slight increase in those over 65. And assumming that those over 50 are answering I don’t know, when they really mean “yes” is a big assumption. I have many friends of both orientations over the age of 50, and many of them, both gay and straight, will either tell you to screw yourself or it’s none of your damn business to be asking me that question. There is a generational divide you know, people of certain ages have a different way of responding to any questions about sex, many don’t wish to talk about it, even the straight ones. But maybe I know a lot of prudes.

But I still don’t see where you find “No increase” in the older hetero groups, when in fact there is.

I am one of those long term HIV positive individuals. I’ve had it since 1988, and sero-converted to AIDS in 2004. Your info about the decades of medications only touches lightly on the issues with long termers like myself. Recent studies have shown that long term positive individuals succumb to old age diseasses at a much earlier age and rate. That does indeed affect the pocket book, that and having to go on disability, which cut our household income by about two thirds, my husband and I fall in the secod category above, but pre-AIDS diagnosis and issues, we were in the top catagory. That’s also part of the reason I mentioned the disease and it’s affects.

You are also very spot on in the area of not being willing to make long term plans, and things of that nature. At the time of my finding I was positive, my Doctors gave me less than ten years to live. I quit school, travelled, did the things I had always dreamed I would, only to find that the Doctors, evidently, didn’t really know what they were talking about. And when I was diagnosed with full blown AIDS I got told to get things in order, and that was 9 years ago. So long term plans are not the kind of thing many of us feel comfortable with.

That’s also one reason I like Obama so much, his Obamacare plan saves many people like me from loosing health care when lossing their jobs (not everyone gets SSDI, it VERY hard to qualify and I had to use a legal service to get it). He may not have succeeded in every thing he said he’d do, but on the things he delivered, he DESERVES to be President for another four years.

The impact of HIV/AIDS on earning potential in the 90′s is much easier to conceptualize. But even more recently – even with highly effective cocktails – health is not assured.

There are a number of gay men who have been positive for a long time. And while their life expectancy may not be significantly lower at this time, decades of medications and bouts of illnesses takes it’s toll. They might be less willing to make promises of deadlines or even to plan for long-term strategies, not being certain that they won’t find themselves in a health downturn.

And even those who contract the virus more recently may be psychologically impacted by the change in status.

Tim, how much could contracting HIV hurt earning potential even more recently?

That is a good point and it could account for at least some of the drop as the demographics increase.

Also when you consider the toll that HIV/AIDS has taken on the earning potential of gay men, that could also have impact on the decreasing income demographic as well. Although HIV is mostly manageable now, it severely impacted and siderailed a number of careers, especially in the 80′s and 90′s but even more recently.