Contug our discsn about the closet let's look at closeted gay men. Why we hi the closet and what to do about .
Contents:
CLOSETED GAY MEN – WHY ARE THEY STILL THERE?
* gay men in the closet *
Rults show that men wanted to avoid the stigma and homophobia they felt certa would lead to strong negative emotnal reactns and profound chang their relatnships. To be eligible, men had to be at least 18 years of age; not self-intify as gay; and report havg had sex wh a man and sex wh a woman the past year. “Our rults clearly intify the need for public tn mpaigns to dispel myths about bisexual men—that bisexual men are not gay, do not have HIV, and are not necsarily non-monogamo, ” said Eric W.
The men nsistently reported anticipatg stigma for havg sex wh men and specified a number of reasons for non-disclosure, cludg anticipatn of negative emotnal reactns; anticipatn of negative chang relatnships; belief that their fay, iends, and female partners held stigmatizg attus toward homosexualy; and prr experience wh negative reactns to disclosure.
HOW MANY AMERIN MEN ARE GAY?
Homosexual inti n be scribed as closeted, homosexually self aware, gay/ lbian and non-gay intified. This classifitn privileg the role of self-fn. In g out, gay people tegrate, as bt as they n, dissociated aspects of the self. As gay people mt ci on a daily basis whether to reveal and to whom they will reveal, g out is a procs that never ends. * gay men in the closet *
The rearchers say their fdgs show that bisexual men may be more likely than gay men to anticipate stigmatizg reactns om others.
However, they utn that their rearch did not pare bisexual men’s reasons to those of gay men, and therefore is still unclear whether gay men perceive ls sigma (and therefore are more likely to disclose) or if gay and bisexual men experience siar levels of stigma perceptns prr to disclosure.
“Such rearch is cril to unrstandg the potential al orr between stigma and disclosure among both gay and bisexual men, ” noted Dowlg. Much of the vlence experienced by gay men, and youth, is at the hands of other self-hatg queer men. Even after we start beg open, once we built liv outsi the closet, we need to e to terms wh our own ternalized homophobia.