Abstract:
The goal in the present study was to understand the discourses that animate children’s talk about
having a parent come out and how these discourses interplay to create meaning. Data were gathered
through 20 in-depth interviews with adults who remembered a parent coming out to them as
lesbian or gay. One discursive struggle animated the participants’ talk about their parents’ coming
out: the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as wrong vs. the discourse of lesbian and gay identity
as acceptable. Analysis of participants’ talk about their familial identities revealed a range of
avenues for resisting the negative discourses regarding lesbian and gay identities. The findings highlight
discursive power in participants’ talk about their familial identities and how participants organize
the conflicting messages they receive in their culture and in relationships regarding family identities.
