Learn about the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth aged 15 to 30 during their process of coming-out or transition, as well as the reactions of their parents and friends.
Partners: LGBT+ Baie-des-Chaleurs and the Chaire de recherche sur l’homophobie de l’UQAM
Area of intervention: Community vitality and well-being
Services: Research and experimentation ; Analysis and diagnosis
Years: 2017-2021
Research team: Marlène Juvany and Sarah Jane Parent
Disclosing your orientation or gender identity to your entourage (friends and family) is a key moment of affirmation in relation to other people. It is a complex and difficult process that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people experience in interaction with their environment, which is sometimes made up of people who are unaware of their lived realities. The presence of their entourage during the process of coming out is important given their vulnerability, especially in adolescence. Meyer’s Minority Stress Model suggests that young people from sexual minorities experience chronic stress due to discrimination based on their sexual orientation.
Through a review of the literature on the lived experience of coming out among LGBTQ+ youth, their parents and their friends as well as data collected through interviews and focus groups, CIRADD wishes to:
- know the expectations of LGBTQ+ people vis-à-vis their entourage when disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity;
- demystify the needs of LGBTQ+ people and their entourage during the process of coming out;
- produce new tools that will help raise awareness of the realities experienced by LGBTQ+ youth in the region in the process of coming out, as well as by their entourage (parents, friends).
This research will help advance knowledge on the reality of loved ones of LGBTQ+ people in Gaspésie and Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
