East Asian LGBTQ Individuals’ Coming Out Experiences to Parents

Asian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals face unique intersectional challenges that cannot be accounted for solely by racism and homophobia. In particular, they grapple with navigating their intersectional identities as ethnic and gender/sexual minorities, struggling to reconcile the tension between heteronormative and conformity-oriented cultural values and their LGBTQ identities. Coming out to one’s parents is experienced as a particularly stressful event for Asian LGBTQ individuals, who often feel pressured to conceal their sexual and gender identities within their ethnic communities. Further, in East Asian societies influenced by Confucianism, disclosing one’s LGBTQ identity is seen as breaking the societal expectations imposed on them, especially the duty to uphold filial piety. Despite these multi-layered challenges facing LGBTQ individuals from East Asian backgrounds, the LGBTQ literature largely focuses on white populations and fails to address the cultural assumptions and norms of racial minority groups that pose intersectional challenges to their identity and experiences. This study explores East Asian LGBTQ individuals’ experiences of coming out to their parents within their cultural contexts. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze interviews with eleven 1.5- or second-generation East Asian LGBTQ immigrants in North America who have come out to their parents. Three superordinate themes emerged: (1) the relational language: “I inconvenienced my parents,” (2) the upsetting dilemma: negotiating cultural expectations and identity, and (3) navigating Asian queer identities: the uniqueness of being. These results were discussed in relation to previous literature, and implications for practice, advocacy, and training were addressed. These findings highlight the intricate layers that shape the coming-out experience for East Asian LGBTQ individuals, including identity development, parent-child relationships, and the broader cultural influences, thereby contributing to a reimagining of the coming-out process within the Asian familial context.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education Graduate Program – Educational Psychology

Grantor

Werklund School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Min, Moonkyung

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Zhao, Xu

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Maroney, Meredith
• Callaghan, Tonya

• Asian LGBTQ individuals
• coming out to parents
• intersectionality
• Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Statement dc:rights

• Unless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/49945

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/122352