Rewriting a Discursive Practice: Atheist Adaptation of Coming Out Discourse

Coming out is a powerful way for individuals to disclose, constitute, and perform membership in stigmatized identity categories. The practice has now spread far beyond its LGBTQ origins. In this essay, I examine how atheists and other secularists have taken up and adapted coming out discourse to meet their situational and rhetorical needs. Through an analysis of 50 narratives about coming out atheist, I show that atheist writers use coming out discourse to claim both high and low agency over their identities. They both follow and resist a low-agency approach that has sometimes characterized LGBTQ uses of coming out discourse. Furthermore, I argue that the attribution of high personal agency in coming out discourse and other discourses of identity can introduce themes of deliberation, choice, and uncertainty, leading to a richer public discussion of identity category membership.

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Coming Out at Work: Performativity and the Recognition and Renegotiation of Identity

The Sociological Review ◽

10.1111/j.1467-954x.2005.00561.x ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 53 (3) ◽

pp. 447-475 ◽

Cited By ~ 90

Author(s):

James Ward ◽

Diana Winstanley

Keyword(s):

Sexual Identity ◽

Coming Out ◽

Speech Acts ◽

Significant Contribution ◽

Emergency Services ◽

Fire Service ◽

Discursive Practice ◽

Work Organizations ◽

Service Departments ◽

The Individual

This paper is about ‘coming out’ and the process of disclosure and non-disclosure of minority sexual identity in organizations. The process of ‘coming out’ is important for the individual lesbian or gay man since it is concerned with the discursive recognition and renegotiation of their identity. The study uses storytelling and a double narrative approach, where 92 individuals were interviewed to produce 15 stories of coming out, which were used for discussion in focus groups. The research took place within 6 organizations – 2 emergency services, the police and the fire service, 2 civil service departments and 2 banks. A conceptual framework is developed to explain the process of disclosure, showing it to be a continuing process rather than a single event. The concept of performativity is used to explain how in coming out the discursive practice and the telling of sexuality performs the act of coming out, making it an illocutionary speech act, and one which is made as an active or forced choice. The performative and perlocutionary speech acts interact with available subject positions thereby impacting on the individual's subjectivity. Sexuality is an under-researched area of diversity in work organizations, as well as being one of the most difficult to research, so the level of access afforded by this research and the framework it produces provides a significant contribution to our understanding of minority sexual identity at work.

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It Gets Better Videos for Suicide Prevention in LGBTIQ+ Adolescents

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000691 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stefanie Kirchner ◽

Benedikt Till ◽

Martin Plöderl ◽

Thomas Niederkrotenthaler

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Gay Men ◽

Suicide Prevention ◽

Coming Out ◽

German Language ◽

Professional Help ◽

Characteristics Method ◽

Sexual Orientations ◽

It Gets Better Project

Abstract. Background: The It Gets Better project aims to help prevent suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) adolescents. It features personal video narratives portraying how life gets better when struggling with adversities. Research on the contents of messages is scarce. Aims: We aimed to explore the content of videos in the Austrian It Gets Better project regarding the representation of various LGBTIQ+ groups and selected content characteristics. Method: A content analysis of all German-language videos was conducted ( N = 192). Messages related to coming out, stressors experienced, suicidal ideation/behavior, and on how things get better were coded. Results: Representation was strong for gay men ( n = 45; 41.7%). Coming out to others was mainly positively framed ( n = 31; 46.3%) and seen as a tool to make things better ( n = 27; 37.5%). Social support ( n = 42; 62.7%) and self-acceptance ( n = 37; 55.2%) were prevalent topics. Common stressors included a conservative setting ( n = 18, 26.9%), and fear of outing ( n = 17; 25.4%). Suicidality ( n = 9; 4.7%) and options to get professional help ( n = 7; 8.2%) were rarely addressed. Limitations: Only aspects explicitly brought up in the videos were codeable. Conclusion: Videos do not fully represent gender identities and sexual orientations. Messaging on suicidality and professional help require strengthening to tailor them better for suicide prevention.

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Constructing and Deconstructing Concepts

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000337 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 63 (5) ◽

pp. 249-262 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Charles A. Doan ◽

Ronaldo Vigo

Keyword(s):

Information Theory ◽

Model Performance ◽

Unsupervised Classification ◽

Family Resemblance ◽

Category Membership ◽

Formal Models ◽

Human Beings ◽

One Dimensional ◽

Relational Patterns ◽

Optimal Classification

Abstract. Several empirical investigations have explored whether observers prefer to sort sets of multidimensional stimuli into groups by employing one-dimensional or family-resemblance strategies. Although one-dimensional sorting strategies have been the prevalent finding for these unsupervised classification paradigms, several researchers have provided evidence that the choice of strategy may depend on the particular demands of the task. To account for this disparity, we propose that observers extract relational patterns from stimulus sets that facilitate the development of optimal classification strategies for relegating category membership. We conducted a novel constrained categorization experiment to empirically test this hypothesis by instructing participants to either add or remove objects from presented categorical stimuli. We employed generalized representational information theory (GRIT; Vigo, 2011b , 2013a , 2014 ) and its associated formal models to predict and explain how human beings chose to modify these categorical stimuli. Additionally, we compared model performance to predictions made by a leading prototypicality measure in the literature.

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