Discursive Struggles Animating Individuals’ Talk About Their Parents’ Coming Out as Lesbian or Gay

Abstract

The goal in the present study was to understand the discourses that animate children's talk about having a parent come out and how these discourses interplay to create meaning. Data were gathered through 20 in-depth interviews with adults who remembered a parent coming out to them as lesbian or gay. One discursive struggle animated the participants' talk about their parents' coming out: the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as wrong vs. the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as acceptable. Analysis of participants' talk about their familial identities revealed a range of avenues for resisting the negative discourses regarding lesbian and gay identities. The findings highlight discursive power in participants' talk about their familial identities and how participants organize the conflicting messages they receive in their culture and in relationships regarding family identities.

Creating supportive learning environments: Experiences of lesbian and gay-parented families in South African schools

“…It is not surprising that the participants attributed this homonegativity to religious beliefs, considering the integral role of religious discourse in perpetuating homophobia (Breshears & Braithwaite 2014;Bryant & Demian 1994;Rostosky, Riggle, Brodnicki & Olson 2008). In South Africa, specifically, researchers have noted the strong influence of religious ideology on attitudes toward sexual orientation (Punt 2006;Reddy 2006;Richardson 2004).…”

“…It is possible that the age of the children at the time of the interviews factored into their experiences of homonegativity, as children in high school tend to experience less bullying about their parents' sexual orientation than during preadolescence and early adolescence (Ray & Gregory 2001). Another possible explanation for the lack of negativity from peers is that same-sex parented families often create supportive networks as preservation against negative discourse (Breshears & Lubbe-De Beer, in press;Breshears & Braithwaite 2014). It is imperative to mention that middle-class and upper middle-class parents may be able better to protect their children from bullying as they have greater geographic mobility and choice in schools (Goldberg 2010).…”

Relational Dialectics Theory

“…Norwood (2012, 2013) studied meanings that circulate in families with one or more transgender members. Researchers have also focused on parent–child relationships: Breshears and Braithwaite (2014) investigated children's talk about their parents coming out, and Tyler and Abetz (2018, 2019) examined discourses that emerge in parent–LGBTQ child talk.…”

Motherhood as Contested Ideological Terrain: Essentialist and Queer Discourses of Motherhood at Play in Female–female Co-mothers' Talk

“…The current study seeks to extend extant research by examining the circulating discourses of motherhood animating these struggles. Multiple studies to date have examined the interplay of competing discourses surrounding adoptive families (e.g., Suter, Baxter, Seurer, & Thomas, 2014) and one study to date has applied RDT to the study of lesbian and gay familial communication processes, examining the discourses characterizing adult children's retrospective accounts of their parents' coming out to them (Breshears & Braithwaite, 2014). The present inquiry adds to the conversation by focusing on the construct of motherhood by examining the cultural discourses surrounding the presence of more than one mother, or the polymaternalism (Park, 2013), inherent in the lesbian family form.…”