The growth and diversification of debates on sexuality and human aging have marked recent decades. At the intersection of “old age and male homosexualities,” this study sought to understand how homosexual men experience the aging process. Old age can come as an assault, frightening, distressing, and unsettling. Aging is an existential condition that no individual escapes, and, in social contexts, being old often means becoming invisible to the social gaze. The aging body is perceived as non-erotic, associated with illness, loneliness, and death. Understanding sexuality in old age appears as an urgency, as it is necessary to break down prejudices embedded in social imaginaries and in the personal imaginaries of the elderly themselves.

This was a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three Brazilian cisgender homosexual men, aged 60 to 71 years. Interviews were conducted online through the Google Meet platform during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The interviews revealed that old age is understood through signs of the social imaginary: impotence, dementia, physiological and social losses, dependence, limitation, finitude, and death. The perception of aging first arises through the gaze of the Other. Participants reported decreased libido, inhibition of genital pleasure, and resistance to discussing sexuality. However, desire persists, expressed in the will to be desired. Homosociability, crossed by the valorization of the young body, excludes the older gay man from social environments. To be old, in the homosocial scene, is to be outside the erotic market and deprived of visibility. The aging body is marked by exclusion and the absence of eroticization. Participants reported feelings of invisibility, loneliness, fear of physical dependence, and death.

The findings reveal that old age, for homosexual men, is marked by double stigmatization: age and sexual orientation. Exclusion from social and homosocial spaces, the stigma of the aging body, and invisibility reinforce prejudice. Nevertheless, sexuality does not disappear: desire, libido, and eroticization persist, even if re-signified. Old age may be a time of losses, but also of reinvention and re-stitching, in which sexuality remains an expression of identity, desire, and resistance. These findings highlight the urgency of inclusive health policies and psychosocial interventions that address both ageism and homophobia, ensuring visibility and dignity for aging homosexual men.