Coming Out: One Family's Story

This case study elicits the process of coming out of a 6 member family-of-choice of an adult gay man in rural New Hampshire. 27.5 hours of face-to-face interviews were conducted with the family individually and collectively. Reflexivity, as a technique, was used extensively. Four themes were identif...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Baptist, Joyce Alexandria
Other Authors: Human Development
Format: Others
Published: Virginia Tech 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10919/29115
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-09272002-184653/
Description
Summary:This case study elicits the process of coming out of a 6 member family-of-choice of an adult gay man in rural New Hampshire. 27.5 hours of face-to-face interviews were conducted with the family individually and collectively. Reflexivity, as a technique, was used extensively. Four themes were identified: Embracing gay identity, integrating as a family, building social networks, and social awakening. This study addresses the complexities of how multiple individuals negotiate rules and accommodate diverse viewpoints within a family system, provides insight into a family's journey of accepting their gay identity, utilizes personal narratives of family members, and reveals how the reflexive process contributes to a family's creation of new stories. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed. === Ph. D.