Faith, family, and coming out: Andrew’s poem

Abstract

The following brief report is a poetic transcription presented as a 12-part narrative poem. The author constructed the poem from an interview conducted with “Andrew,” an adopted, 26-year-old, gay, Caucasian man. The interview was part of a pilot study on the experience facing negative parental reactions to the disclosure of gay identity; however, as the poem reflects, the narrative extends far beyond this research aim to include Andrew’s experience growing up gay in a conservative, religious family and his struggle to reconcile his faith with his sexual orientation. The author attempted to convey in the poem Andrew’s voice with particular attention to his speaking rhythm, pauses, silences, breath, and interruptions. The poem is presented without contextualizing literature in an effort to let Andrew speak directly to the reader, who is invited to take in his story without preconceived ideas and thereby foster direct empathic understanding of his experience.

Keywords:

• Gay identity
• Narrative
• poetic transcription
• poetic inquiry
• psychotherapy
• religion
• sexual orientation