“I am very much a story waiting to be told”: An analysis of the ‘coming out’ stories of women making the transition from hetero-sexual to lesbian identity

Roach, Louisa (2010) “I am very much a story waiting to be told”: An analysis of the ‘coming out’ stories of women making the transition from hetero-sexual to lesbian identity. Liverpool Hope University.

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Abstract

In traditional models of development, sexual identity is a reflection of an inherent sexuality, discovered through goal-oriented stages typically beginning in childhood or adolescence (Coleman 1982, Troiden 1989). For Women who take on a lesbian identity after a substantial period of heterosexual identity, the implication of such models is that they are conceptualised as either lesbians who have gone through a period of ‘repression’ or denial, or that they are ‘not really’ lesbians but instead alter their ‘natural’ sexual inclinations because of their ideologies (Kitzinger & Wilson 1995). A qualitative analysis of the ‘coming out’ narratives of 4 women was carried out to explore the process of negotiation of changes in sexual identity for such women at the level of individual subjective experience, with consideration of the ways in which historically based narratives of sexuality influence the development of individual sexuality. Three email interviews and one telephone interview were conducted and analysed using a thematic analysis within a phenomenological framework. The author explores the concept that sexual identity is better viewed as a process rather than a property of the individual, and that individuals draw from available discourses in constructing their own personal narrative. The implications for lesbian visibility are discussed.