Abstract

Coming out of the closet is a psychosocial process that entails the disclosure of one’s non- heteronormative sexual orientation to family, peers, and the wider public – a phenomenon that is necessitated by the prevalence of societal heteronormativity. With the recent legal decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relationships in India, there is renewed interest in and emergent necessity to expand upon the existing academic discourse on the lives, rights, health and well-being of same-sex attracted individuals in India. The present study accumulates detailed narratives of disclosure of sexual orientation of five male and five female young-adults of same-sex sexuality from ages 18 to 25 in metropolitan cities of India. Thematic narrative analysis is used to gain insight into the factors of being “in the closet”, those underlying coming out of the closet, and the expectations from and impact of coming out to one’s family. Five major themes have emerged – three restraint factors and two propulsion factors influencing sexual identity disclosure. Restraint factors are those that reduce the probability of coming out and these are – an incessant pressure to conceal, perceived lack of stability and support, and anticipated disintegration of long-standing familial tradition. Propulsion factors act as catalysts of disclosure and these are target congeniality i.e. approachability of the target of disclosure, and parental validation – which, when attained, enables the individual to come out more easily to others. The findings have been critically compared and contrasted with the existing body of literature in the domain, which sets the agenda for further inquiry.

摘要

出柜是一个社会心理过程，它需要向家人、同龄人和更广泛的公众披露一个人的非异性恋性取向——这种现象是异性恋普遍存在的必然现象。随着印度最近对双方同意的同性性关系的合法非刑事化，人们对印度对同性吸引的个人的生活、权利、健康和福祉的现有学术讨论重新产生了兴趣，并且迫切需要扩展现有的学术讨论。本研究收集了印度大城市中 18 至 25 岁的五名男性和五名女性同性性行为的性取向披露的详细叙述。主题叙事分析用于深入了解“在壁橱里”的因素，那些潜在的出柜行为，以及出柜对家人的期望和影响。出现了五个主要主题——影响性身份公开的三个约束因素和两个推进因素。约束因素是那些降低出柜可能性的因素，它们是——持续的隐瞒压力、感觉缺乏稳定性和支持，以及长期存在的家庭传统的预期瓦解。推动因素充当披露的催化剂，这些因素是目标相投，即披露目标的可接近性，以及父母的认可——当达到这一点时，使个人更容易向他人坦白。研究结果已与该领域现有文献进行了批判性比较和对比，这为进一步调查设定了议程。