‘Coming Out Tales’: Adult Sons and Daughters' Feelings About Their Gay Father's Sexual Identity

Coming out to their children is a dilemma that concerns many gay, bisexual, and lesbian parents with children from previous heterosexual relationships. How children found out about having a father who identified himself as gay, and their feelings about their father's sexual identity, were explo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian and New Zealand journal of family therapy 2010-12, Vol.31 (4), p.326-337
Main Authors: Tasker, Fiona, Barrett, Helen, De Simone, Federica
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bisexuality
Child development
Children
Children of gay parents
coming out
Family psychotherapy
Family relationships
Father and child
Fathers
Gay fathers
Gays & lesbians
Heterosexuality
Homosexuality
Psychological aspects
Psychology
qualitative
Sexuality
young adulthood
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Summary:Coming out to their children is a dilemma that concerns many gay, bisexual, and lesbian parents with children from previous heterosexual relationships. How children found out about having a father who identified himself as gay, and their feelings about their father's sexual identity, were explored through qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 36 sons and daughters (aged 19 to 36 years) whose gay fathers participated in the Gay & Bisexual Parenting Survey (Barrett and Tasker, 2001). Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed that awareness of their father's sexual identity was often left unspoken for various reasons, and that acceptance came about through gradual understanding as well as direct discussion. Interview data indicated the complexity of the relationship between the young adult's personal acceptance of their father's gay identity and their consideration of social context when deciding how open to be to others about their father's sexual identity. This research has varied implications for therapeutic work with gay and bisexual fathers coming out to their children from previous heterosexual relationships.
ISSN:0814-723X
1467-8438
DOI:10.1375/anft.31.4.326