ow would it feel to completely dismantle your past identity and replace it with another, more real version of yourself? What is the process? How and when does one come to this decision? As part of a series of lectures in the social work department, Dr. Andrew Dunlap, assistant professor of social work, gave a presentation on these aspects of “coming out” in the LGBTQ community as part of his dissertation research.
What exactly is coming out? Dunlap defined it as “coming to develop a positive self-regard towards one’s own minority sexual orientation” based on outside influences. He categorized this process of coming out as having three parts: divesting heterosexual identity and building a new identity, disclosure and interpersonal connection of sexual identity and stigma management of this identity.
According to the Cass identity model developed in 1979 by Vivian Cass, these stages of discovering one’s own sexual identity are split into six sub-categories: identity confusion, identity comparison (being closeted), identity tolerance (questioning sexuality), identity acceptance (coming out), identity pride and identity synthesis.
A great proportion of Dunlap’s presentation focused on how the process of coming out has changed over time with different generations. In terms of whether or not it is easier for LGBTQ people to “come out” today, opinions vary. In one source Dunlap cited, it is no longer a crisis in this modern age of technology and information. However, according to another source, LGBTQ youth are still viewed as being at risk for mental health problems, homelessness, substance abuse and suicide as a result of their anxiety towards their sexual orientation.
As part of his research, Dunlap covered the coming out experience of today’s same-sex attracted youth, the personal theories that same-sex attracted individuals have about the coming out process, how these match with stage theories and post-modern theories of coming out and how the coming out experience has changed over time.
“In the past, I was doing a lot of very intensive coming out work with students in my office, helping them to develop a strong sense of who they were around this aspect of their identity,” Dunlap said. “I started to notice that more and more students were coming to campus actually having done that work. So I got really interested in this drift of the coming out process happening at an earlier age,” he said.
Dunlap has noticed that experiences can vary between age groups. To organize the groups, Dunlap split each age group into cohorts A through E. Cohort A, the “pre-Stonewall” group, consists of those born before 1950, which is the oldest group. Cohort B, the “Stonewall” era, includes those born between 1951 and 1962. Cohort C, the “AIDS crisis” group, includes those born between 1963-1969, Cohort D, the “post AIDS/Millennial” group, consists of those born between 1970-1988 and Cohort E, the “New Gay Teen” group, is used to describe people born between 1989-1992.
With these organized groups in place, Dunlap started his questionnaire. First, those taking the survey would choose which age group they would fall under as well as which gender they would be a part of. This gave Dunlap a wide age variety to survey. Next, stages of the coming out process were measured in milestones. Some of the milestones were when those surveyed became aware of their different sexuality, concluded that they were not straight, became aware of an LGBTQ role model, met a non-heterosexual person, told their family, told their non-family, had their first sexual experience, their first relationship and the average age they were when they came out.
After these groups filled out their questionnaires, Dunlap noticed a pattern of Cohort E coming out at an earlier age than Cohorts A through D. In contrast, Cohort A had the highest age of coming out. According to the data, younger generations of LGBTQ youth have come out at progressively earlier ages than the older LGBTQ generations.
In terms of how this affects the College community, Dunlap addressed the need of college level LGBTQ students for support. “It’s a bit of a moving target,” Dunlap said. Despite the technology and information about LGBTQ issues, the coming out process can still be a struggle for people, especially at the college level. Dr. T. Evan Smith, associate professor of psychology and director of the women and gender studies program, concluded with his thoughts on the process. “It is still better for some, but not better for all,” he said. “It’s still hard, and it does get better.”
