The Half-open Closet:Research In Decision-making About Young Homosexuals' Coming Out

Due to the "golden mean"——Chinese traditional culture,the existence of the gay community in China does not cause an extreme homophobic violence phenomenon as in the western world,and neither achieve their civilization and development of the cultural diversity,instead of being forced on the edge by the intervention of the so-called authority and the mainstream of society.Because of this,the homosexuality is often referred to as "the person in the closet".It is fact that they exist but they are not recognized,creating a "hidden closet".In addition,the coming out of the closet is a lifelong recognition of homosexuals.It refers to the process by which homosexuals complete their self-identification and then express their sexual orientation to the heterosexual world,as well as integrate the identity or sexual orientation into the process of the mainstream life of the individual.It is not a binary noun of "whether or not to come out",but it is influenced by the subjective or objective environmental factors.Due to the complex social reality background,coming out is a risky behavior to homosexuals.Therefore,when they choose to come out,they usually have to make decisions carefully.The aim of this dissertation is to explore the life of homosexual people in the reality,to understand different processes of their decisions about coming out of the closet,and to analyze their decision-making on the perspective of Coleman's rational choice theory.Through the qualitative research method of participant observation and semi-structured interview,the author deeply interviewed 16 young homosexuals totally.And then analyse the data of interview based on the theory of rational choice which was made up of such three dimensions as the actor,action capital and action structure.The research conclusion mainly presents the following three topics:(1)the door of the closet:the purpose and risk of coming out;(2)acknowledge the closet:the choice of the cabinet object and the coming out decision-making;(3)the lock of the closet:the shackles of cultural ethics.The study finds that in different levels,gay people may weigh the different risk factors of coming out and then make different choices.Based on the similar experience and sensibility of the whole decision-making process of homosexuals,the author tries to find out the time process generated by the homosexuals as the actors themselves in the decision-making process of the cabinet.It is found that the decision-making locus of homosexual activists has experienced four stages:incubation period,germination stage,operation period and integration stage.In different times,homosexuals face different problems and challenges,so they adopt different strategies to cope with questions and improve their lives.In order to explain the importance of rational choice,the author makes a comparison between the decision making of different cases and attempts to form some suggestions for homosexuals of coming out.Finally,this paper discusses the results of the study implications for social work practice and services,and put forth advice for the gays and their parents as the main body of the social work intervention.Moreover,on the basis of this,this paper tries to call for social workers and policy makers pay more attention to the homosexual community,and establish a more improved and steady social support system for them.