Straight Until Proven Queer: Exploring Young Queer Attitudes Towards Coming Out

Abstract

Much has been said about the coming out process in sociological literature — including varying characterizations of the process and varying claims about the significance of the process. This study aims to uncover how young queer people today — an emerging generation of queer people — feel about the process to explore what from the literature holds true, how queer people today characterize the process, and the attitudes they have towards it. Through a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with twelve self-identifying queer people between the ages of 18 and 24 living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, this study finds that today, queer people characterize coming out as a highly complex process that differs depending on identity and geographical location, and which happens continuously. It finds an ambivalence in how young queer people today feel about the process: participants ascribe various values and meanings to the process — including value in its strategic component, meaning in self-affirmation, and meaning in being able to share a part of themselves with others — while simultaneously longing for a life where queer people do not have to come out, for the process upholds heteronormativity and the assumption that everyone is heterosexual until otherwise stated.