Methodology, Criticism, and Representation in Narrating the Closet

Guiding Research Questions

The construction of research on same-sex attraction and the closet is guided by $5$ primary questions:

• How is same-sex attraction discussed and lived?
• What does it mean to come out of—and, consequently, stay in—the closet?
• When and how does—and should—coming out happen?
• How does a person’s same-sex attraction affect not only the self but also others?
• How can the experiences of same-sex attraction and the closet be made more humane?

These inquiries enable $3$ specific methodological questions regarding ephemeral and invisible phenomena:

• How might the closet—a metaphorical space and abstract construct—be studied?
• How can coming out—an act of self-disclosure difficult to witness as it is lived—be studied?
• How can same-sex attraction—a private attraction primarily accessible through discourse and action—be studied?

Understanding Autoethnography

Autoethnography is a method used to study culture in its material and ephemeral manifestations and investigate the interactional dynamics of cultural members. It incorporates the following practices:

• Valuing personal experience of cultural phenomena.
• Striving for "thick descriptions" (Geertz, $1973$) of cultural happenings.
• Utilizing storytelling as an important practice and mode of representation.

Ethnography and Cultural Definition

An ethnographer studies, represents, and is defined by their relationship to a culture. This involves writing "thick descriptions" to make "strange" aspects of a group familiar for "insiders" (cultural members) and "outsiders" (cultural strangers) (Maso, $2001$). These descriptions are generated through:

• Interviewing cultural members.
• Participating in and observing cultural events and rituals (Geertz, $1973$; Makagon, $2004$).
• Examining ways of speaking and relating (Ellis, $1986$, $1995a$, $2009$; Lindquist, $2002$; Philipsen, $1975$, $1976$).
• Analyzing artifacts like clothing, architecture, books, movies, and photographs (Borchard, $1996$; Goodall, $2006$; Neumann, $1999$).
• Allowing findings to emerge inductively from fieldwork rather than applying predetermined structures (Jorgenson, $2002$).

The Status of LGBQ Cultures

A methodological dilemma exists because LGBQ communities are often framed as tangential to culture or as "subcultures" (Stein, $2010$), "co-cultures" (Orbe, $1998$), or "lifestyles" (Herdt & Boxer, $1992$). Most research excludes these communities from the definition of "culture," which is often limited to region, race, and ethnicity (Kim, $2002$; Yep, $1998$). However, if culture is defined by interactional practices, shared values, and common experiences, then LGBQ communities qualify as cultures based on:

• Phenomena such as camp (Meyer, $1995$; Newton, $1979$; Sontag, $1964$; Whitney, $2006$).
• Gender inversion and nonconformity (Butler, $1999$; Escoffier, $2003$; Feinberg, $1993$; Frank, $1993$; Hutson, $2010$; Sedgwick, $1993$; Walker, $1993$).
• Same-sex attraction (Bolton, $1995$; Ginsberg, $1974$; Lee, $1979$).
• Trauma and shame (Cornell, $2007$; Cvetkovich, $2003$; Downs, $2005$; Halberstam, $2005$; Halperin & Traub, $2010$; Sedgwick, $2003$).
• Cultural spaces such as bars (Corey, $1996$; Slavin, $2004$), pride parades (Herrell, $1992$; Johnston, $2005$; Kates & Belk, $2001$), and bathhouses (Berry, $2007$; Hammers, $2009$).
• Unique ways of interacting and negotiating canonical discourses like coming out, aging, and heteronormativity (Butler, $1993$, $1999$; Yep, $2003$).

Methodological Constraints of Space and Fieldwork

Canonical ethnography relies on spatial metaphors: "fieldwork," "here and there," "insider and outsider." This is problematic for LGBQ cultures because they have no dominant physical field and involve invisible characteristics.

• Reliance on Space: Tying culture to physical fields like neighborhoods or bars limits study to large cities, implying culture cannot exist in less populated areas.
• Ephemeral Characteristics: Phenomena like the closet and same-sex attraction are not tied to physical space.
• Reframing Fieldwork: To study these cultures, researchers must troubleshoot space-bound requirements. This involves documenting conversations in computer files or on cocktail napkins and recognizing that one is always immersed in possible LGBQ discursive fields.

Autobiography and (Auto)Ethnography

Autobiography involves retrospectively writing episodes of one's life. As Freeman ($2004$) notes, significance is often not understood until the moment is past and located within a broader constellation of events.

Personal Experience as Research

Autoethnography uses personal experience analytically. Storytelling alone is insufficient; it must be framed around theoretical and methodological tools and research literature (Allen, $2006$). This approach:

• Requires making personal experience meaningful for others to motivate cultural change.
• Demands sensitivity to literary values and "narrative thrust."
• Strives for narrative truth, acknowledging that memory is fallible and truth is contextual (Freeman, $2010$; Denzin, $2004$, $2007$).

Data Sources for Studying Same-Sex Attraction

Research on same-sex attraction relies on $4$ distinct kinds of data:

1. Personal Experience: Treating one's own experiences as valuable data to discern and analyze patterns of feelings and responses. This provides "firsthand familiarity" (Blumer, $1968$) with social life as it happens.
2. Informal, Unsolicited Conversations: Serendipitous encounters that offer a glimpse into "life itself" and "everyday encounters" (Freeman, $2004$). These are critical because they exist outside the "rarefied atmosphere of the interview."
3. Interviews: Direct engagement through interactive and life-story formats.
4. Mass-Mediated Representations: Analyzing how these phenomena are publicly constituted in media.

Informal and Unsolicited Conversations as Data

Natural discourse provides insights into the closet that organized research might miss. Examples include:

• A job interviewer revealing he is gay but fears coming out would tarnish his tenure case.
• A student writing in a paper that she likes women but refuses to talk about it, remaining out to only $1$ person $3$ years later.
• A high school acquaintance calling for advice on escaping "reparative therapy" after seeing a gay identity on Facebook.com.
• A student in an office reporting being disowned and kicked out by parents who said he was "no longer their son."
• A friend asking for advice on how to respectfully tell her father, who was outed following an affair with a man, that she still loves him.

Ethical Care: Privacy must be protected aggressively by altering identifying details (race, name, context) because LGBQ persons face high personal and social pressures.

Interview Methodologies

Interviews for this research involved only persons already out to the researcher and willing to speak.

• Interactive Interviews: Collaborative, multiple sessions situated within emerging relationships to understand emotionally charged topics (Ellis, Kiesinger, & Tillmann-Healy, $1997$). Conversations often began with open questions like "How do you define coming out?" or "Have you ever experienced homophobia?" Five lesbians and $4$ gay men participated.
• Life Story Interviews: Using Bruner ($1986$) as a model, these involve $3$ meetings: a $30\text{-minute}$ life story recording, followed by $2$ meetings exploring specific topics and omissions, such as why a person might leave same-sex attraction out of their story. Four self-identified gay men participated.

Mass-Mediated Representations

Life writings and media portay experiences difficult for researchers to witness directly, such as the act of self-disclosure involved in coming out. Tyler ($2007$) notes that witnessing a coming-out event can be disrespectful, as it may prevent the recipient (e.g., a mother) from reacting freely (screaming or cussing).

• Life Writings Examined: Surviving Madness ($2002$), Gary in Your Pocket ($1996$), Body, Remember ($2003$), What Becomes of the Brokenhearted ($2003$), Covering ($2006$), Mean Little Deaf Queer ($2009$), Times Square Red, Times Square Blue ($1999$), and Truth Serum ($1996$).
• Anthologies Examined: Word Is Out ($1978$), Boys Like Us ($1996$), A Member of the Family ($1992$), When I Knew ($2005$), From Boys to Men ($2006$), and Whistling in the Dark ($2009$).
• Visual and Audio Media: Sitcoms (Will & Grace), films (Sordid Lives, Were the World Mine, For the Bible Tells Me So, A Single Man), and the Savage Love Podcast.

Recursive Coding and Assembling Research

Data was processed through "initial coding" (Charmaz, $1983$), identifying themes inductively. These themes were then applied deductively to new sources. Major themes identified include:

• A time before being able to come out.
• A time of being out to oneself but not others.
• A time of coming out to others.
• A time post-coming out.

Writing and Representation Techniques

The research utilized a "layered account" (Ronai, $1995$, $1996$) involving a collage of texts. Specific techniques include:

• Voice: First-person for personal anecdotes; second-person to bring readers into a scene or discuss shameful moments; third-person for context and reporting others' findings.
• Showing vs. Telling: "Showing" brings readers into emotionally rich scenes via dialogue, allowing them to "experience an experience" (Ellis, $1993$). "Telling" provides a distanced overview of emotionally empty or intellectually prioritized events.
• Anonymization: Names and places were changed to protect individuals and organizations (Fine, $1993$).

Addressing Scholarly Criticisms

Research on the closet faces $4$ major criticisms:

1. The "Post-Closet" Critique: Arguments suggest the closet no longer exists or matters in a progressive world (Hutson, $2010$).
2. Eurocentrism: The closet and coming out may signify a White, Eurocentric understanding of sexuality that assumes specific identities must follow same-sex acts.
3. Racial Bias: Gay identity is often positioned as a White identity, focusing on issues like marriage while disregarding racism, economic disparity, and immigration.
4. Gender Bias: Gay identity is criticized as male-biased and misogynistic. Sex is often defined through the presence of a penis and ejaculation, which excludes female-female relations (Creet, $1991$). In some cultures, only the "passive" partner in sex is labeled "gay," framing the role as shameful because it mimics a "woman's role" (Labi, $2007$).

Responses to Criticisms

The author responds to these challenges in $3$ ways:

• Validation of the Closet: The closet manifests in painful ways and remains a significant factor in relational rifts and news headlines.
• Focus on Attraction: By focusing on the revelation of same-sex attraction rather than just "gay identity," the work remains relevant to those who do not adhere to Eurocentric labels.
• Relational Reality: Same-sex attraction is a phenomenon everyone—including heterosexuals—must negotiate, as seen in Uganda where officials threaten to imprison anyone who knows of someone with same-sex attraction and fails to report them (Sharlet, $2010$).