Siblings and the Coming-Out Process: A Comparative Case Study. Issue 4 (21st March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Haxhe, Stephanie; Cerezo, Alison; Bergfeld, Jeannette; Walloch, Joseph C.
• Is Part Of: Journal of homosexuality. Volume 65:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 407
• Page End: 426
• Publication Date: 2018-03-21
• Subjects: Coming out -- gay -- lesbian -- Romani -- sibling relationships; Homosexuality -- Periodicals; 306.766
• DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2017.1321349
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0091-8369

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Siblings play a key, supportive role in the lives of many lesbian and gay adults. Yet siblings are rarely considered in the literature regarding the coming-out process (D'Augelli et al., 1998; Hilton & Szymanski, 2011; LaSala, 2010; Savin-Williams & Dubé, 1998). To fill this gap in the research literature, we carried out a comparative case study in the country of Belgium between two sets of siblings—three Romani brothers with one sibling identifying as a gay male and three White sisters with one sibling identifying as a lesbian. These two cases were pulled from a larger qualitative study (Haxhe & D'Amore, 2014) of 102 native French-speaking Belgian participants. Findings of the present study revealed that siblings offered critical socio-emotional support in the coming out of their lesbian and gay sibling, particularly with disclosing to parents and with fostering self-acceptance.