In this thesis I explore the relevance of role exit theory in relation to heterosexual persons who formerly identified as gay, lesbian, or queer. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a self identified sample of seven women and four men from south-western British Columbia. Participants discussed the social processes involved in establishing a heterosexual identity. including social stigma, reactions of significant others, presenting authentically, and establishing heterosexual relationships. Research results indicate that role exit as theorized by Ebaugh (1988) cannot be used as an extension of Troiden's (1988) model of sexual identity formation to account for shifts in sexual identity subsequent to the establishment of gay, lesbian, or queer identities. Further, the experiences described by participants did not conform to the stages of role exit, which suggested the need for a flexible model of heterosexual identity (re)formation that takes into account behaviour, affect, cognition, and the acceptance of heterosexual or straight as a personal label.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/2308 |
| Date | 04 March 2010 |
| Creators | Bouma, Beverly Ann |
| Contributors | Westfall, Rachel Emma, Devor, Aaron H. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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