In from the Outer

• DOI: 10.1300/j082v50n01_03
• Publication Date: 2005-12-19T21:58:03Z
• Authors: Jeffrey Grierson; Anthony M. A. Smith
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Self Disclosure; Politics; Age Factors; Friends; 03 medical and health sciences; Humans; 1701 (four-digit-FOR); Family Relations; 321299 Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified; Homosexuality, Male; 0305 other medical science; 170100 Psychology; Demography

This paper explores generational differences among gay men in their experience of, and narratives relating the process of, coming out. The interview data for 32 gay men living in Melbourne, Australia, is drawn from the Community, Attachment, Structures and the epidemic (CASE) Study. Narratives of coming out for three generational groups: pre-AIDS, peri-AIDS, and post-AIDS, are examined in terms of the experiences of disclosure to family and friends. A shift from narratives organised around crisis and disjunction to those organised around consolidation is matched by differences in the degree to which peer networks are maintained post-coming out.