The retrospective lived experience of 'coming out' in gay men

Abstract

The aim of this research is to find out what is the lived experience of the participants during their coming out process. The approach was qualitative with semi-structured interviews and an interpretative phenomenological research approach was used. I conducted the research on a sample of six gay men aged between 40 to 55 years of age, who have been out for at least seven years. Findings unexpectedly showed that all of my participants had no actual psychological effects apart from stress. Another finding was that the experience of my participants was accepted by those around them, including parents and peers. Not all of them however directly declared their sexuality, up till today, to their parents. During those days it transpired that it was difficult to get information regarding what homosexuality was all about. All the participants had various experiences. The emerged themes for all participants were coming to terms with one's sexuality', where all of them at some point in their life came out, coming out to peers', coming out to family members', the psychological effects during their coming out' and the psychological and social norms in relation to the lack of information locally'. The following two themes were to be found with only few participants: living another life', which included one participant who is married with two children and another one who was on the edge of marrying, and gay marriages'.