Family Dynamics and Perceptions of Support in LGBTQ+ People’s Family Relationships

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: Sexual and Gender Minority Families

Abstract

A large body of sociological family literature examines the experiences of LGBTQ people with their families of origin, including the coming out process (McLean, 2007; Mosher, 2001; Reyes et al., 2023; Scherrer, 2016), factors that are associated with greater levels of support (Grov, Bimbi, Nanin, & Parsons, 2006; Montano et al., 2018; Shilo & Savaya, 2011; Ryan, Huebner, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2009), and how a privileging of heterosexuality and cisgender identity continue to manifest in relationships (Reczek & Bosley-Smith, 2022; Robinson & Stone, 2024; Scherrer, Kazyak, & Schmidt, 2015). Another large body literature examines the types and range of family relationships that exist. For example, scholars are interested in understanding how conflict and closeness manifest in families (Connidis & McMullin, 2004; Fang, Galambos, & Johnson, 2021; Townsend & Franks, 1995). The goal of this paper is to bring these two bodies of literature together to gain a more complete picture of the family experiences of LGBTQ people. We draw on nine in-depth interviews with LGBTQ+ people and their family members. We address the following research questions: How do people describe the level of overall closeness and amount of conflict in their family relationships? How do these overall dimensions of relationships play out in terms of how families respond to the disclosure of a LGBTQ identity and how they continue to navigate acceptance of a family member’s LGBTQ identity? We find that how families navigate conflict in general is instructive to how they navigate the disclosure of an LGBTQ identity. Likewise, there is a reciprocal relationship between how perceptions of their overall levels of closeness and perceptions of support and acceptance for LGBTQ identity. We discuss the implications of these findings for what they reveal about how families might best navigate potentially contentious and polarizing issues, such as LGBTQ identity disclosure.

Authors

• Emily Kazyak, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• K Scherrer