A Unique Support for Sexual-Minority Identity Development: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of a Long-Term Formal Mentoring Relationship Between an Adult and a Youth From the Gay Community

Disclosing one’s sexual minority identity or “coming out of the closet” is a key milestone in sexual minority identity development. While scholars have explored how race, gender, class, and other social classifications shape coming out patterns among lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) individuals, we know far less about the effect of religious contexts. To address this shortcoming, we extend existing theoretical insights to better understand how faith and religiosity shape coming out patterns among sexual minorities both independently and collectively. Specifically, we examine how religious affiliation and religious attendance (a measure of religiosity) affect when LGB individuals privately realize and publicly disclose their sexual minority identity. Using data from the Pew Research Center’s 2013 Survey of LGBT Adults, we conduct a series of ordinary least squares regressions on a representative sample of LGB adults ( n = 1,136). We find religious contexts—both religious affiliation and attendance—have no independent effect on when a person realizes or publicly discloses their sexual minority identity for the first time. However, evangelical Protestants that frequently attend religious services publicly disclose their sexual minority identity at older ages. These results highlight the social cost of publicly disclosing an LGB identity, especially within conservative religious spaces.

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Concealment of a Sexual Minority Identity in the Workplace: The Role of Workplace Climate and Identity Centrality

Journal of Homosexuality ◽

10.1080/00918369.2021.1917219 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Elizabeth Grace Holman ◽

Brian G. Ogolsky ◽

Ramona Faith Oswald

Keyword(s):

Sexual Minority ◽

Workplace Climate ◽

Minority Identity ◽

Identity Centrality ◽

Sexual Minority Identity

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Gender, Sexuality, and Psychological Theories of Youth Development

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1388 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Cassandra R. Homick ◽

Lisa F. Platt

Keyword(s):

Identity Development ◽

Gender Identity ◽

Life Span ◽

Sexual Identity ◽

Sexual Minority ◽

Erik Erikson ◽

Transgender Identity ◽

Stage Models ◽

Minority Identity ◽

And Gender

Gender and sexual identity play a significant role in the lives of developing youth. The developments of gender and sexual identities are shaped by a variety of factors including, but not limited to, biological, cognitive, and social elements. It is crucial to consider that gender and sexual minority individuals face additional complexities in the two processes of gender identity and sexual identity development. Cisgender identity development is most commonly understood with the help of early cognitive and social theories, although biological components play a part as well. Specifically, the theories of Lawrence Kohlberg, Sandra Bem, Alfred Bandura, and David Buss have made significant contributions to the understanding of cisgender identity development. Modern transgender identity development models are helpful in exploring transgender identity formation with the most popular being the Transgender Emergence Model founded by Arlene Lev. Similar to cisgender identity development, heterosexual identity development is typically understood with the help of early psychosocial theories, namely that of Erik Erikson. Sexual minority identity development is often comprehended using stage models and life-span models. Sexual minority stage models build off the work of Erik Erikson, with one of the most popular being the Cass Model of Gay and Lesbian Identity Development. Offering more flexibility than stage models and allowing for fluid sexual identity, life-span models, like the D’Augelli model, are often more popular choices for modern exploration of sexual minority identity development. As both sexual and gender identity spectrums are continuing to expand, there also comes a need for an exploration of the relationship between sexual and gender identity development, particularly among sexual minority populations.

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