Fairy Godmothers and Guardian Angels: A Qualitative Study of the Gay Mentorship Relationship

We conducted a qualitative study to explore the benefits of one gay male community resource, gay mentorship, particularly regarding sexual identity development. Findings indicate that gay mentorship is most involved in gay identity integration, and aided in supporting gay identity development, connecting men to gay-related resources, helping men to feel part of a gay community, improving management of gay-related stressors and role-modeling a positive gay identity. We found that gay mentorship was not associated with gay identity formation. Our research does suggest that gay mentorship fosters psychosocial benefits in gay men, and should therefore be fully explored in future studies.