Siblings and the Coming-Out Process: A Comparative Case Study |
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| Authors: | Stephanie Haxhe Jeannette Bergfeld Joseph C Walloch |
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| Institution: | 1. Psychological and Speech Therapy Consultation Center, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium;2. Clinical Psychology PsyD Program, Alliant International University, San Francisco, California, USA;3. Counseling Services, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA |
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| Abstract: | Siblings play a key, supportive role in the lives of many lesbian and gay adults. Yet siblings are rarely considered in the literature regarding the coming-out process (D’Augelli et al., 1998; Hilton & Szymanski, 2011; LaSala, 2010; Savin-Williams & Dubé, 1998). To fill this gap in the research literature, we carried out a comparative case study in the country of Belgium between two sets of siblings—three Romani brothers with one sibling identifying as a gay male and three White sisters with one sibling identifying as a lesbian. These two cases were pulled from a larger qualitative study (Haxhe & D’Amore, 2014) of 102 native French-speaking Belgian participants. Findings of the present study revealed that siblings offered critical socio-emotional support in the coming out of their lesbian and gay sibling, particularly with disclosing to parents and with fostering self-acceptance. |
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| Keywords: | Coming out gay lesbian Romani sibling relationships |
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