Author: Dawn Betts-Green

The project I am working on for this class is just chock full of ethical concerns.  Anytime you start a conversation dealing with sexual orientation and/or gender identity, you risk bring up intensely triggering events, particularly when the issue of an individual’s coming out experience is concerned.  Many have dealt with rejection, alienation, and violence in the process of coming out, and the topic must be approached with the highest levels of sensitivity and discretion.  In structuring the research instrument for this project, I made it very clear not only that participation is voluntary (which is standard) but also that there is the option of remaining completely anonymous.  The survey would be administered online without me having met or spoken to the intended participants involved.  If they are willing, they have the option of participating further participation in one-on-one interviews, but even then, they do have the option of email, phone, or face-to-face.  While face-to-face would of course be preferred, phone and especially email offer a way to do the interview without many of the concerns of in-person interviews.  I would not see the participant, and they could, if desired, give a fake name in order to maintain full anonymity.

These precautions and structures are not ideal when trying to gather such information but they are necessary.  Many of the intended participants may not be out to anyone but themselves or a select few friends and were these not in place, there very well may be no participants from which to gather data.  Of course, these issues are not only present with LGBTQ research.  This is true of any population in which the interview, survey, or other data collection method may be triggering.

The original intent of this update was to create an interview instrument to examine the reasons people frequent such events as FSU Pride’s Speak Out, in which individuals are invited to share their coming out stories.  However, in the process of attempting to write the instrument, I realized that in order to properly structure such interview questions, I would first need preliminary data.  As such, what is below is a draft of a survey with two qualitative questions which are intended to provide me with starting points for constructing interview questions.  The other data gathered will be used to provide a rough sketch of the audience/participants at the event.

Survey

Welcome!  The following is a brief survey about the recent Speak Out event sponsored by FSU’s Pride Student Union for use in doctoral research about the coming out narrative.  Your participation in this survey is entirely voluntary, and you are welcome to leave the survey at any point should you feel uncomfortable in any way.  There is no penalty for not completing the survey.  The survey is also entirely anonymous.  At no point are you required to provide any personally identifying information unless you should choose to volunteer for follow-up interviews.  The survey should take approximately ten minutes to complete.

Your participation is appreciated.

Question 1:  Age  ­­­­­­­­­________

Question 2:  What is your current year in school?

__Freshman     __Sophomore     __Junior       __Senior

__Graduate Student               __Not currently attending

 Question 3:  What is your current gender identity?

__ Female        __Transgender (Female to Male)        __Genderqueer

__Male            __Transgender (Male to Female)        __Agender

__Bigender     __Third Gender     __Genderfluid      __Transwoman

__Transman     __Two-spirit     __Other:  ______________________

__Prefer not to answer

Question 4:  What is the current sexual orientation with which you identify?

__lesbian         __gay       __bisexual       __asexual        __pansexual

__heterosexual     __queer      __same gender loving     __Prefer not to say

__Other:  ______________________

 Question 5:  How out are you currently?

             __completely out        __out only to some friends     __out to all friends

__out only to some family      __out to all family       __out only to self

__still questioning

Question 6:  Have you attended the Speak Out event in previous years?

 Question 7:  Have you attended other similar events, either in Tallahassee or elsewhere?

 Question 8:  Can you briefly explain in the space provided the primary reason you attended the Speak Out event?

 Question 9:  Can you briefly explain in the space provided any other reasons you attended the Speak Out event?

If you wish to remain anonymous, your participation is complete. If, however, you are willing to participate in follow up interviews on this topic, please enter your email in the space provided below.  Interviews can be performed through email, phone, or in person, according to your preference.  Thank you for your participation.

This survey was approved by the Institutional review Board at FSU.  Any questions you may have can be addressed to Dawn Betts-Green in the School of Information (cdb07f@my.fsu.edu) or her major professor Dr. Don Latham (dlatham@fsu.edu).

As I discovered in class Thursday, content analysis is both much more complex than it appears and much simpler.  For the activity, I looked at whenicameout.tumblr.com, a site set up so that anyone can submit their coming out story, anonymously or not, and have it posted.  I was thoroughly confused while actually doing the activity, convinced that I was not identifying any of the pieces that content analysis requires.  However, when talking about my exercise out loud, I realized I actually had all of the pieces, some more than I needed.

I think content analysis will come in quite handy when conducting my own research in the future.  I’m interested in LGBTQ literature and how it is presented in reviews, online, at libraries and schools, etc.  This method will be the perfect tool to take those apart.  In addition, my current project deals with the coming out story as information, and this method is also seemingly tailor-made for such a project.

While I realize open coding is an entirely different process, I feel that content analysis might be an excellent complement to it.  The analysis here focuses on context and can be used to spotlight influences perhaps not apparent in the coding process.

Like most other things related to the eventual dissertation I’ll have to write, “coding” was a vague, fairly upsetting concept I kind of didn’t want to talk about.  After the coding exercise in class, I realized I’ve already done it in some form before this.  As an undergraduate, I completed an honors thesis, and I actually did a fair amount of coding for that project.  None of it was as structured as the coding discussed in class; it was mainly through color-coded notations in margins of books and print outs; and I certainly didn’t call it coding.  However, it served the same basic function:  condensing and organizing ideas and concepts into larger groups that can be better analyzed.  Having realized this, I am less worried about the coding in my dissertating future.

By nature, I’m a hyper-organized person who makes massive amounts of notes on almost everything–including leisure reading–so I think coding will end up being an enjoyable process for me.  Of course, it is always possible it will end up driving me out of my skull, but at least I will begin the process expecting to enjoy it.  This type of coding appeals to me in that it bases conclusions on the data and actual situation rather than allowing for preconceived notions to take over the analysis.

I could certainly see the need for another coder to check one’s notes though.  My partner in the coding exercise caught a lot of the same things I did but also managed to note multiple items I either didn’t note or didn’t notice.

The second update on my project is an annotated bibliography of the useful sources I have gathered so far.  Some from the initial resource list were deleted and a few new ones were added here.   A quick glance will tell you that the majority of the sources have more to do with coming out than with information studies, but I am working to remedy this.  Dervin’s notion of Sense-Making has been added in an attempt to frame this better from an LIS point of view.  It is, of course, a work in progress.  [I apologize in advance if the formatting below did not translate.]

Barton, B. (2012). Pray the gay away:  The extraordinary lives of Bible Belt gays. New York,NY:  New York University Press.

Though this book focuses a great deal on the lived experience of LGBTQ people specifically related to religious constraints in the area of the American South known as the Bible Belt, it is not limited to this.  Barton discusses LGBTQ lives and coming out through the lens of theories by Foucault as well as various queer theorists.

Brown, M.A. (2011). Coming out narratives: Realities of intersectionality (Doctoral dissertation, Georgia State University). Retrieved from http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/63

Brown’s doctoral dissertation bridges an important gap left by scholars of the 1990s focusing on LGBTQ realities and the seemingly unnecessary nature of the act of coming out.  The author notes that these arguments privilege white, male, urban, middle class experiences and ignore the intersectionality present in the LGBTQ community.  As such, she uses such frameworks as race, class, gender and gender expression, and religion to highlight the need for the coming out narrative.

Buckland, M.K. (1991). Information as thing. Journal of the American Society of Information Science, 42(5), 351-361.

A seminal article in the field of information studies, Buckland examines information from three specific angles:  information as thing, information as thing, and information as process. Herein, these categories are broken down and information in all its forms is categorized.  His determination that information can indeed be the act of informing or being informed is of particular interest to this project.

Denes, A., & Afifi, T.D. (2014). Coming out again:  Exploring GLBQ individuals’ communication with their parents after the first coming out. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 10(3), 298-325.

Denes and Afifi examined the process of LGBTQ individuals coming out a second time to their parents for various reasons.  This article specifically focuses on family relations and how this is affected by the act of coming out, but the discussion of coming out as process, and as a continuing process in particular, is relevant to this project’s goal.

Dervin, B. (1998). Sense-Making theory and practice:  An overview of user interests in knowledge seeking and use. Journal of Knowledge Management, 2(2), 36-46.

Dervin’s emphasis in this particular article is a bit outside the scope and goals of this project.  However, she discusses the idea of knowledge as a verb, which is highly relevant.  Little other library and information studies literature speaks of this in such a way that it could be inclusive of the coming out process.

Dunlap, A. (2014). Coming out narratives across generations. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services, 26(3), 318-335. doi:  10.1080/10538720.2014.924460

This study highlights the process of coming out as experienced by individuals from multiple age ranges.  Participants were between the ages of 18 and 74 and evenly split among men and women.  The results offer a wide-ranging picture of what it means to “come out” and what it has meant in the past.

Goldman, L. (2008). Coming out, coming in:  Nurturing the well-being and inclusion of gay youth in mainstream society. New York, NY:  Routledge.

The majority of this book is a practical manual for parents, teachers, counselors, and other adults, providing advice, anecdotal examples, and statistics to allow them to be better prepared to help LGBTQ young adults in their care.  Goldman’s discussion of disclosure and coming out as a defining moment speaks to the notion of power within the act, however, and will be useful in that respect.

Gray, M.L. (2009). Negotiating identities/queering desires:  Coming out online and the remediation of the coming-out story. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(4), 1162-1189. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01485.x

Gray investigates the online lives of rural LGBTQ youth and how digital media has become a part of creating a public, “out” persona.  In particular, she examines how this media affects the act of coming and the recounting of the coming out narrative.  This article poses specific points at which coming out exists as both information-as-process and information-as-thing.

Gray, M.L. (2009). Out in the country:  Youth, media, and queer visibility in rural America. New York, NY:  New York University Press.

Out in the Country examines the lives of LGBTQ youth in rural American, primarily those living in Kentucky and in the Appalachian border areas of the state.  Gray describes how the worlds of these youth are bounded by multiple constraints and how they use the edges of these boundaries to build spaces in which they can be visible. Explanations of the limits of their visibility and how they use their own stories to expand their boundaries will be highly useful.

Plummer, K. (1995). Telling sexual stories:  Power, change, and social worlds. New York, NY:  Routledge.

Plummer’s work does not cover simply the act of coming out as LGBTQ.  Instead, it speaks of a wide range of related narrative phenomena and relates these to the act of storytelling as a cultural act which holds power.  His sociological study offers this project a separate but linked manner in which to discuss coming out as knowledge and information-as-process.

Rhoads, R.A. (1994). Coming out in college:  The struggle for a queer identity. Westport, CT:  Bergin & Garvey.

Coming Out in College is primarily an examination of young LGBTQ individuals experiencing an open and welcoming environment in which to express their sexual orientation.  However, Rhoads also emphasizes coming out as process and as a way of understanding culture and the world in which one lives.

Roseborough, D.J. (2006). Coming out stories framed as faith narratives, or stories of spiritual growth. Pastoral Psychology, 55(1), 47-59. doi:  10.1007/s11089-006-0031-4

This article is perhaps on odd choice, especially when seen in context with queer theory and information seeking models, but Roseborough provides here a conversation about how the act of coming out can be cast as a process outside of the typical consideration of it as such.  Coming out is discussed as an act which is, in fact, a secondary process as well as the primary, which is quite similar to the act of telling one’s coming out narrative.

Savin-Williams, R.C. (2001). Mom, Dad. I’m gay.:  How families negotiate coming out. Washington, DC:  American Psychological Association.

Much like Barton’s focus on religio-cultural constraints, Savin-Williams’ focus on the family dynamics surrounding the act of coming out is not completely relevant here.  Yet the personal narratives woven throughout the text contain excellent discourses on how the process of and decision to come out coalesces for young adults.

Signorile, M. (1993). Queer in America:  Sex, media, and the closets of power. New York, NY:  Random House.

Signorile explores coming out in within the context of multiple arenas in American culture.  The most relevant and useful pieces of his work involve the discussion of the power dynamic that lives within the decision to out oneself or the act of having been outed.  This notion of power related to the process is notably absent in the library and information studies literature.

Vargo, M.E. (1998). Acts of disclosure:  The coming-out process of contemporary gay men. New York, NY:  The Haworth Press.

Although Vargo’s intention was to provide a how-to manual for gay men on coming out, there are multiple places in the text in which the author provides discussion on coming out as emotional necessity and the effects of the process on one’s psyche.  There is also a certain amount of explanation of the need to tell one’s coming out narrative to others in the community.

Case Study:  LGBTQ collections in rural public libraries in the American South

Questions:

1. How comprehensive and relevant are the LGBTQ collections in rural public libraries in the American South?

2.  How comprehensive and relevant do librarians in rural public libraries in the American South believe their LGBTQ collections are?

The case study described here would be a holistic multiple case study to allow for comparison not only between LGBTQ collections in comparable libraries but also the beliefs about the LGBTQ collections by the librarians responsible for building and maintaining these collections.  A single case study would be of interest but would ultimately not provide any measure of generalizability; while a multiple case study might not either, it would be more likely to, depending on the outcomes.  The units of analysis in this study would be the individual libraries.

There would be a large amount of basic catalog searching involved in answering research question 1.  Each library’s catalog would need to be searched by keyword using a specified list of terms to determine the extent of the LGBTQ materials in the collection.  After this list has been used, a title search based on popular and award-winning LGBTQ literature would also be used.  These searches will also reveal whether the library’s cataloging practices are thorough and accurate.  After determining what sort of LGBTQ collection is present, librarians at each library would be interviewed about the LGBTQ materials available (or not) in their library.

Were this study to be redesigned to include larger numbers of libraries, it would certainly paint a more comprehensive picture of this issue in this particular region.  One could certainly do a study in which the collections were analyzed for range and type of LGBTQ materials available, but to only seek librarian opinions about the state of their LGBTQ collections would be nearly useless without the collection data with which to compare them.

This week’s exercise was eye-opening in a couple of ways. First, I have discovered that I am not a good interviewer. I failed to have enough probes in my critical incident interview to keep my subject talking for even the five minutes required for the exercise. The topic was something I am incredibly interested in and could talk about for hours on end, but I did not account for the fact that any subjects I would have might not be as engrossed as I am. This is an excellent lesson to learn. As researchers, we are, of course, generally very involved in the topics we are studying and can be oblivious to other people’s indifference or lukewarm attitude toward the subject.

Second, as the interviewee, I became aware of the difficulty of answering pretty random questions on the fly. Hopefully, I can adjust for my own shortcomings in the area of interviews, because the plan is to have interviews in my dissertation and some other research.

I have decided to focus my project on the idea of the coming out narrative as information as process. There are innumerable sources discussing the act of coming out but few if any in LIS discussing it as an act of information. This first update is simply the bibliography of sources I have been gathering.

Preliminary Project Resource List

• Barton, B. (2012). Pray the gay away: The extraordinary lives of Bible Belt gays.
  New York, NY: New York University Press.
• Brown, M.A. (2011). Coming out narratives: Realities of intersectionality
  (Doctoral dissertation, Georgia State University). Retrieved from
  http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/63
• Buckland, M.K. (1991). Information as thing. Journal of the American Society of
  Information Science, 42(5), 351-361.
• Corrigan, P.W., Kosyluk, K.A., & Rusch, N. (2013). Reducing self-stigma by
  coming out proud. American Journal of Public Health, 103(5), 794-800.
• Denes, A., & Afifi, T.D. (2014). Coming out again: Exploring GLBQ individuals’
  communication with their parents after the first coming out. Journal of
  GLBT Family Studies, 10(3), 298-325.
• Dunlap, A. (2014). Coming out narratives across generations. Journal of Gay
  and Lesbian Social Services, 26(3), 318-335. doi:
  10.1080/10538720.2014.924460
• Goldman, L. (2008). Coming out, coming in: Nurturing the well-being and
  inclusion of gay youth in mainstream society. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Gray, M.L. (2009). Negotiating identities/queering desires: Coming out online
  and the remediation of the coming-out story. Journal of Computer-
  Mediated Communication, 14(4), 1162-1189. doi:10.1111/j.1083-
  6101.2009.01485.x
• Gray, M.L. (2009). Out in the country: Youth, media, and queer visibility in
  rural America. New York, NY: New York University Press.
• Plummer, K. (1995). Telling sexual stories: Power, change, and social worlds.
  New York, NY: Routledge.
• Rhoads, R.A. (1994). Coming out in college: The struggle for a queer identity.
  Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
• Riley, B.H. (2010). GLB adolescent’s “coming out.” Journal of Child and
  Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 23(1), 3-10.
• Savin-Williams, R.C. (2001). Mom, Dad. I’m gay.: How families negotiate
  coming out. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Signorile, M. (1993). Queer in America: Sex, media, and the closets of power.
  New York, NY: Random House.
• Vargo, M.E. (1998). Acts of disclosure: The coming-out process of
  contemporary gay men. New York, NY: The Haworth Press.

Field Notes Paragraph

Having seen everything from anti-abortion displays to fire baton twirling practice on Landis Green, no activity would surprise me. One can never predict what will be happening there on a given day. This particular afternoon, a multitude of activities were taking place. One appeared to be practice sessions for campus tour group guides. As I arrived, I noted two pairs of individuals; one in each wore a name tag and carried a clipboard om which they made notes. The other person in the pairs was making a presentation upon which the first person gave feedback. My assumption about campus tours stems from overhearing part of the presentation from one pair which included information about Landis Green and University Health Services. Both pairs left Landis Green headed in the same direction. In addition, there was a group with dogs who seemed to be meeting to allow their pets to socialize. A female sitting near me seemed to think a retriever mix’s decision to urinate near her was personal in nature. I suppose this could be true given her loud complaints over the phone about dogs being on Landis.

On Ethnographic Observations

While observing the activities on Landis Green, I realized the near impossibility of observing one small group in the midst of many activities. Instead, I should have focused on describing the space and the general activities, which would have probably produced better observations and a more insightful field notes paragraph. In the process of writing up the observations, I also noted the importance of immediately writing up one’s observations. I doubt I would have gotten any level of detail had I waited a while to write it up. However, it is also nearly impossible to get all the detail from field notes into a coherent and descriptive write up. So much of what I scribbled down did not make it into the narrative for various reasons. Tim and I swapped paragraphs, and his questions again highlighted the gaps in the narrative into which I should have inserted much of the detail from my notes. Tim did a much better job than I of capturing each individual person’s apparent personality in his notes and paragraph. It was likely the time constraint that negatively affected my notes and write up; I also should have formulated a better plan for my observations and focus.

I have always been far more drawn to qualitative research than quantitative. Primarily, this is because all of my undergrad degrees are in disciplines which focus on qualitative methods: religion, women’s studies, and English. But more than that, I am interested in the lived experiences of the people I want to study. I realize that quantitative methods can provide excellent information and can even enhance qualitative work. However, especially with my current research interests, life stories, personal responses, and other qualitative information will be much more helpful. Though plenty of quantitative research provides solutions to real world problems, I feel that qualitative offers more opportunity for practical application in such areas as social justice. Measuring various budgetary breakdowns, educational statistics, and other numerical data is important for governmental programs and other reasons, but they will tell you absolutely nothing about the individuals you are studying and what their day-to-day experiences actually are–how they see the world, their hopes and fears, and the often minute ways things can be done to improve their every day lives.