The Old Gays Guide to the Good Life
Lessons Learned About Love and Death, Sex and Sin, and Saving the Best for Last
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From America’s most beloved foursome—the TikTok sensation @oldgays—a book of unexpected aspirational advice and inspirational stories drawn from their decades of living, from pre-Stonewall to the rise of the LGBTQ+ movement to gay marriage and beyond.
Ranging in age from sixty-seven to eighty, Mick, Jessay, Robert, and Bill are the real-life Golden Girls of the social media era, a quartet of old gays whose hard-won confidence and awesome authenticity have taken the culture by storm. They are America’s queens—and, more important, they are survivors whose lives have been transformed by sweeping cultural change. In this fabulously fun and entertaining book, they share their stories—humorous, heartbreaking, shocking, and profound tales that only older gay men can tell. It was their generation that was devastated by AIDS, a health crisis that deprived us of so many brilliant, creative lives, including many of their friends.
In this delightful group memoir, Mick, Jessay, Robert, and Bill tell all about their lives, revealing who they are beyond TikTok, where they came from, and how they found one another. They offer their collective wisdom on a rainbow of topics, including coming out, sex, gay liberation, gay marriage, AIDS, aging, and saving the best act for last. Outrageous and hilarious, refreshingly earnest and unfiltered, engaging and insightful, they’ve been through it all—harassment, divorce, depression, bankruptcy, even near-death experiences. Between the four of them, there’s not much of life they haven’t seen or done, and now they dish on everything from fitness and fabulous dinner parties to church and orgies.
An intimate and moving portrait of four friends who have experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly, and are still looking forward to the best that is yet to come, The Old Gays Guide to the Good Life is a celebration of lives lived to the fullest—sometimes against all odds—a lesson for all of us that age is just a number and that getting older can be audaciously fun.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this upbeat account, TikTok personalities Peterson, Bill Lyons, Robert Reeves, and Jessay Martin (known collectively as The Old Gays) reflect on becoming social media sensations during their twilight years and offer witty advice on topics including fitness, fashion, manscaping, and entertaining. For instance, Peterson, the quartet's "beefcake," asserts that "nutrition is more important than exercise," while the flamboyant Martin shares a preference for platform shoes ("The higher the heel, the closer to God"). Elsewhere, Lyons discloses tips to help readers "accentuate size down there" and Reeves offers foolproof dinner party advice: "Smoke lots of pot before you eat." Though irreverent humor is the Old Gays' bread and butter, they also reflect on faith, their struggles with homophobia, and surviving the AIDS crisis (both Reeves and Peterson are HIV positive). Asserting that readers "don't have to become a TikTok star and walk down the street in a couture gown with your junk on full display to change your day-to-day from drab to fab," the authors inspire fearlessness with their own exuberant attitudes. This risqué rule book celebrates making the most of life at any age.
