Trust and Disclosure of Sexual Orientation in Gay Males' Mother-Son Relationships

ABSTRACT

This study explored the possibility that changes in feelings of trust for mother are associated with gay males' decisions to disclose (or withhold) their sexual orientation in their mother-son relationships. Fifty gay and bisexual males completed a questionnaire about their coming out experiences in the context of their relationships with their mothers. As part of this questionnaire, they completed a retrospective graphical trust history task that involved plotting the degree of trust they felt for their mothers over time and across important events (such as disclosure). Results are discussed in terms of gay men's expectations about their mothers' responses to disclosure, the evidence for stability versus change in their memories regarding the nature of their feelings of maternal trust over time, the complexity of the trust histories participants drew, similarity between disclosers and non-disclosers in the shape of their trust curves, and the types of events and experiences that constituted the timeline or “plot” in the stories participants told about their mother-son relationships.This study offers the first empirical evidence to support speculations linking disclosure of sexual orientation to the climate of trust that exists in the relationship between discloser and target (e.g., Holtzen, Kenny & Mahalik, 1995).

Key Words:

• Trust
• disclosure
• mother/son relationship