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Abstract
Geographical literature has predominantly presented the heterosexual nuclear family home as an oppressive environment for gay, lesbian and bisexual (GLB) youth, reporting that homophobic abuse, violence and expulsion are not uncommon outcomes of coming out at home. While not denying the widespread reality of these experiences, little consideration has been given to GLB youth whose disclosure at home is affirmed by parents and siblings, nor the reasons for and consequences of this acceptance and support. This article begins to fill this gap, contributing to geographies of sexuality, home and family. Through a critical reading of autobiographical coming out narratives from Australia, I reconsider the experience of the nuclear family home for well-supported GLB youth, arguing against the normalization of the homophobic nuclear family home. Through the support of parents and siblings, family homes can become sites of resistance to wider practices of heterosexism, and support for GLB youth. Heterosexual identity does not ‘essentially’ generate heterosexist reactions and attitudes: some heterosexual parents and siblings welcome and nourish sexual difference, and this provides fissures in overarching structures of heteronormativity which allow for the generation of non-heterosexual subjectivities and desires. I contend that this actually ‘queers’ the family home, providing a space for the fluorescence of non-heterosexuality within an apparently heteronormative site.
La literatura geográfica ha presentado el hogar de la familia nuclear heterosexual como un ambiente opresivo para jóvenes que son gay, lesbiana y bisexual (GLB), y reporta que el abuso, la violencia y la expulsión homofóbica son consecuencias frecuentes de manifestarse (‘coming out’) en casa. Aunque no se puede negar la realidad extendido de éstas experiencias, se han recibido poco consideración las/los jóvenes GLB cuyas manifestación en casa se afirma por sus padres y hermanos, y tampoco las razones y consecuencias de tal aceptación y apoyo. Éste artículo pretende a llenar este vacío en la literatura, contribuyendo a la geografías de la sexualidad, el hogar, y la familia. A través de una lectura de narrativas autobiográficas de manifestarse en Australia, reconsidero la experiencia del hogar de la familia nuclear para los jóvenes GLB que tienen apoyo familiar, y hago un argumento contra la normalización de la familia nuclear como homofóbica. Gracias al apoyo de padres y hermanos, los hogares familiares pueden ser sitios de resistencia a las practicas generales de heterosexismo y apoyo para los jóvenes GLB. La identidad heterosexual no engendra necesariamente reacciones y actitudes heterosexistas; algunos padres y hermanos heterosexuales abrazan y alientan diferencias sexuales, y como resultado, se hacen fisuras en las grandes estructuras de heteronormatividad, lo que permitan que formen las subjetividades y los deseos no-heterosexuales. Sostengo que la consecuencia es el ‘queering’ del hogar familiar y la producción de un espacio para la fluorescencia de ‘no-heterosexualidad” adentro de un sitio aparentemente heteronormativo.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Robyn Dowling for invaluable guidance, to Gordon Waitt and Kathy Mee for ongoing encouragement, and to three anonymous referees and Brenda Yeoh for critical and constructive advice on an earlier draft.
Notes
1. The acronym GLB refers to gay (male), lesbian and bisexual sexuality, and will be used in this article to refer to these self-chosen signifiers of sexual identity.
2. The 46 narratives initially analyzed for this study included autobiographical accounts not only from gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, but also from two transsexuals. However, their stories are not included in the subsequent analysis because they came out as transsexual in their mid-to-late 30s, long after leaving the family home. Consequently, as discussed in more detail in the methods, the analysis focuses on only those gay, lesbian and bisexual narrators who came out at home with familial support.
3. For instance, note Sim Lee's father's response in the later discussion.
4. I use the term family home, rather than parental home, to indicate that the relationships which comprise families (and hence underpin home life) are not only those between the individual and one's parents, but also include complex and everchanging interrelationships between siblings. The term family home thus captures the multifaceted and intimate interconnections between self, siblings and parents which take place in the parental home. I also acknowledge that the interrelationships comprising family are not always consanguine, but include ‘step’ (or ‘social’) relatives as well. See Valentine et al. (Citation2003) for a thorough review of literature on the family.
5. This does not always make coming out easier if one is a ‘rebellious’ teenager (Valentine et al. Citation2003, 490).
6. See Gorman-Murray (Citation2004) for a discussion of the role of published autobiographical narratives in GLB community-building and place-making in Australia. See Plummer (Citation1995) for a general discussion of the importance of autobiographical coming out narratives for GLB communities and identities.
7. Content analysis is a technique for determining the basic themes in a set of textual data. Manifest content analysis assesses surface content – the repetition of key words and phrases – while latent content analysis involves searching below the surface for deeper themes, determining the meanings underpinning the text. Here, content analysis was initially used to determine the suitable narratives – those who came out at home with familial support. Latent content analysis was also fundamentally intertwined with the subsequent critical reading of these suitable narratives, helping to grasp the key themes about the reasons for and consequences of familial support for GLB youth coming out at home. Following Blunt's example, coding of these themes was undertaken ‘by hand’: in analyzing Anglo-Indian women's experiences of home and empire through similar life writing (diaries, letters), Blunt (Citation2003, 84) chose not to use computer software, and to code ‘by hand’, in order ‘to interpret personal stories and memories in a more nuanced and sensitive way than computer coding would allow’.
8. Sim Lee's story, from Wotherspoon's collection, took place in the late 1970s/early 1980s. All other narratives are taken from Shale's anthology, and took place during the 1990s.
9. I refrain from making more of this bias because it closely mirrors the proportion of urban to rural situations across the entire 46 stories.
10. In rethinking the contours of heterosexual identity in the family home, I focus specifically on the example of parents. Similar arguments are, of course, applicable to the heterosexual siblings in these narratives who affirm and support their GLB brother or sister.
11. However, Valentine's more recent work has paid close attention to the diversity of parental responses, drawing attention to the affirmation shown by some mothers and fathers (Valentine et al. Citation2003; Skelton and Valentine Citation2005).
12. Savin-Williams' study of GLB youth coming out to families in the United States reveals that younger parents are likely to be more supportive than older parents. He suggests this is because younger parents were raised in a culture in which the greater visibility of homosexuality encouraged more knowledge, openness, tolerance and acceptance of sexual difference.