The Process Of Lesbian Coming Out Of The Closet

With the progress of the times and the opening of people's minds,more and more people are familiar with homosexual groups,and the phenomenon of homosexuality coming out of the cabinet is also increasing.However,most of the existing research focuses on the causes and characteristics of the existence of homosexuality,and there is a lack of research on lesbian and its emergence process.The purpose of this study is to explore the emergence process of lesbians and understand their inner thoughts in the process of going out,so as to improve the public awareness of lesbians and reduce stigma.The purpose of this study was to sample and snowball five lesbians,aged 19-25,who participated in the study voluntarily.Among them,three are college students and two are social workers.Researchers obtained data through semi-structured interviews,including the process of lesbian coming out of the cabinet,the response of the objects coming out of the cabinet,the feelings of the respondents,the impact or significance of the respondents,and the impact of gender roles on the coming out of the cabinet.The time of each interview is 30-60 minutes,and each interviewee is interviewed once.With the consent of the interviewees,the recorded documents were obtained,and then the text was transcribed and sorted out.The total text was about 45000 words.Finally,the main time nodes of interview materials are sorted out in chronological order by narrative analysis,and the main results are as follows:(1)The process of the interviewee's going out can be divided into five stages:self identification stage(?),exploratory going out stage(?),formal going out stage(?),family going out stage 1(except for parents,IV),family going out stage 2(parents,?).But not all lesbians will go through every stage.Because of the different structure of family members,some interviewees will skip the family out stage 1 to enter the family out stage 2;some interviewees will accidentally go out to their parents and directly jump from the self-identity stage to the family out stage 2.(2)The stage of self-identity(?)refers to the stage in which the interviewees recognize that they are lesbian.There are two modes in this stage,one is to fully confirm their lesbian identity before entering the stage of going out;the other is to interweave the stage of self-identity with the stage of going out.(3)Exploratory exit stage(?)refers to the stage in which the interviewee has certain motivation to try to come out.The objects of exploratory going out are mostly close friends,hair children,etc.they have a high acceptance of the interviewee's going out,which makes the interviewee firm their confidence to continue going out.The motive of the interviewee's exploratory coming out is to find similar groups,seek social support or confirm their sexual orientation through the same-sex love.(4)The official out of the closet stage(?)refers to the stage when the interviewees open their sexual orientation and gradually expand the scale of known groups.At the official stage of going out,the objects of going out are generally classmates,teachers,colleagues,etc.At this time,the interviewee's attitude towards going out of the cabinet has changed a little,he is no longer careful,and he is preparing for his family's going out of the cabinet.(5)Family out stage 1(except parents,IV)refers to the stage of going out to relatives,friends or brothers and sisters other than parents.This stage is a transition from the outside to the inside for lesbians.The purpose is to gain the recognition of brothers and sisters,or hope that brothers and sisters can help persuade their parents.(6)Stage 2(parents,V)refers to the stage when parents come out of the closet.The motive of going out to parents is to hope that parents can accept their sexual orientation,but it is usually opposed by parents.However,the respondents think that it is normal for parents to object and whether parents object will not affect their family relations.(7)The influence of women's gender role on coming out of the cabinet is more reflected in the family coming out of the cabinet different interviewees have different views.Some lesbians worry that they have no strength to deal with the possible crisis after the family comes out of the closet,and they are more hesitant to come out or choose not to go out of the closet with their parents.Some lesbians think that the family's expectation of women's gender role is far lower than that of men,and women have less pressure to go out,so they are more likely to choose to go out.To sum up,although lesbian groups are accepted by more people in the process of coming out,there are still some difficulties in family coming out.This may be related to parents' worries about their children's future life,their fears that their children may be discriminated against by others,and their own stigma of homosexuality.Finally,this study puts forward some suggestions from different perspectives such as lesbian,parents and society.