The Old Gays Guide to the Good Life: Lessons Learned About Love and Death, Sex and Sin, and Saving the Best for Last

Mick Peterson · Bill Lyons · Robert Reeves · Jessay Martin

Nov 2023 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

a roller coaster ride of emotional intensity as you're constantly trying to prove yourself to this fixated ideal or goddess of your Love try to convince the only person in your life if they are the only person in your life while they're slowly pushing themselves away continuing to running how do you yourself being a runner stay put till the end for the first time I learned his life lessons get hard in this too close to the truth down to earth comedy romantic comedy of two people in love trying to find your way

About the author

The Old Gays, best friends Robert, Mick, Jessay, and Bill, have won over the hearts of fans young and old alike with their heartwarming and humorous content on TikTok. In addition to sharing hilarious reactions to pop culture and their excitement about their growing celebrity following, the guys, who live in Cathedral City, California, have also become educators on the strides made in the LGBTQ+ community over the past five decades. With endless experiences and wisdom to share, and their fan base continuing to flourish, the Old Gays are inspiring, shining examples of how to make the most of life no matter your age.