Getting “Bi” in the Family: Bisexual People's Disclosure Experiences

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) individuals are increasingly likely to disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity to members of their families (Pfeffer, 2012; Savin-Williams, 2005; Seidman, 2002), indicating an ongoing need to better understand how members of this community navigate the disclosure process. Prior literature has examined how individual-level factors shape the coming out process, such as the sociodemographic characteristics of age, race, gender, religiosity, and class (Beals & Peplau, 2006; Grov, Bimbi, Nanin, & Parsons, 2006; Schope, 2002; Waldner & Magruder, 1999). More sociological literature has examined how the coming out process is situated within a broader cultural context, showing, for instance, how families may respond to disclosures using cultural knowledge about sexual minorities (Aveline, 2006; Fields, 2001; Martin, Hutson, Kazyak, & Scherrer, 2010; Pfeffer, 2012). These studies often focus on a particular familial relationship, (e.g., parent-child), although recent research indicates that attending to family systems may provide a more holistic and nuanced account of the coming out experience: "The change in the whole family system is another essential feature that has not received significant attention in the literature [on coming out in families]" (Baptist & Allen, 2008, p. 94).Existing family research most often focuses on lesbian women's and gay men's coming out experiences; bisexual people (and transgender people) are often either excluded from analyses or grouped together in studies with lesbian and gay participants (Biblarz & Savci, 2010; Heatherington & Lavner, 2008; Moore & Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, 2013). Indeed, "very little family research in the past decade paid special attention to bisexuals" (Biblarz & Savci, 2010, p. 490), indicating lingering questions about their experiences in families. Although some early studies have provided hints as to bisexual people's familial experiences (Lannutti, 2008; McLean, 2007; Oswald, 1999; Watson, 2014), to the best of our knowledge no study has yet focused on bisexual people's experiences coming out in families. In the present study, we remedy this gap using a cultural and family systems framework to understand bisexual peoples' coming out processes in families. Analyzing qualitative data from 45 bisexual individuals, we examined two questions: (a) How do cultural representations of bisexuality influence disclosure experiences in families and family members' reactions and (b) how do the relationships among family members influence the disclosure process?Literature ReviewTheoretical PerspectivesTwo interrelated theoretical perspectives shaped our analysis of bisexual people's disclosure experiences. Family systems theory offers a useful lens for understanding how "individual family members are necessarily interdependent, exerting a continuous and reciprocal influence on one another" (Cox & Paley, 1997, p. 246). Family systems analyses also draw attention to how an event influences multiple family members (e.g., parents, siblings, uncles, cousins, children) as well as family members' relationships with one another. Although family systems approaches are used most frequently in practice-oriented fields, such as marriage and family therapy or social work, other social scientists have used family systems perspectives to demonstrate how families may be fruitfully analyzed as a social system (rather than individually or dyadically; Baptist & Allen, 2008; Heatherington & Lavner, 2008; Scherrer, 2014). This approach has been especially useful for understanding interactions among families with GLBT members and provides fertile ground for subsequent research (Baptist & Allen, 2008; Heatherington & Lavner, 2008; Oswald, 1999; Scherrer, 2014). The majority of research examining the impact of sexual orientation disclosure within families has primarily centered on younger gay and lesbian peoples' relationships with parents (D'Augelli, Hershberger, & Pilkington, 1998; Rossi, 2010; Waldner & Magruder, 1999). …