Coming Out: A Dialectic of Intimacy and Privacy

Abstract

The concepts “privacy” and “intimacy” can enhance our understanding of the family dynamics involved in the process of coming out. The author proposes that the relationship between privacy and intimacy is neither contradictory nor complementary, but dialectical. These concepts not only can enrich our theoretical frame-work, but they can promote open exchanges between parents and their gay sons and lesbian daughters. Parents who perceive that their homosexual sons and daughters disclose then sexual orientation to them within the context of intimacy adjust more easily than they might otherwise to the disclosed information.

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