Abstract
.Understanding the complex needs of the unique and widely diverse gay male community underscores the importance of practitioners to robustly examine the wide array of sociocultural, lifespan, health and mental health factors. While gay men are a subpopulation of the broader lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community, practitioners should realize that they have unique needs associated with their sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and gender expression sometimes similar to their LBTQ counterparts but often separate from factors that impact LBTQ individuals. In the same fashion, while gay men may encounter similar life challenges as their nongay counterparts separate from some associations with gender and sex, there are clearly unique issues related to their sexual orientation and other intersecting factors (eg, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion/spirituality, rural/urban setting, HIV status, etc.). This chapter starts with an examination of the relevant literature associated with cisgender gay men—defined largely as gay men who were born male, ascribe to a male gender and a gay sexual orientation, are not on the transgender spectrum, and do not identify as bisexual or heterosexual. The opening background section explores the relevant literature on this community while tying in relevant historical and sociological events from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that have influenced their lives and culture, followed by an examination of lifespan considerations from early school age through older adulthood and death and dying; the impact of dating, marriage, and relationships; culture.