9.2 Coming-out: Gay males’ information seeking

9.2 Coming-out: Gay males’ information seeking

Hamer, JS

Information seeking for a homosexual person considering coming-out must be quite difficult. As Hamer notes, it is a time when many are in great fear, first of their own identity, and later on of the reaction of those they love. This kind of secretive information seeking is common when the seeker is embarrassed about the information they are looking for. However, in this case, the seekers may be embarrassed of themselves, of realizing their identity. It makes me sad that homosexuality is still such an outsider group. As teens, those who are heterosexual don’t usually have to go through large amounts of information seeking, stress and fear to discover that they are heterosexual. While information seeking for gay males may be easier now than it was 30 years ago, we still live in a heteronormative world. While no one will be offended by someone’s heterosexuality, someone may be offended by someone’s homosexuality. While I don’t agree with that, it is something a person in the process of coming out must be aware of.

While reading this article I think of an episode of the Canadian teen soap opera, Degrassi The Next Generation. One of the characters, a 9^th grader, has started to realize he has feelings for guys. When they have a sex talk at school, he is too scared to ask the questions he has about his sexuality, even one on one. He turns to the internet to find his answers. The internet has become the great information Mecca for those with questions they are embarrassed to answer. For many, you can find a community that can help with your information seeking needs and even people in similar situations. I hope that someday, the coming out process will not be an outsider situation. I think that librarians need to be open and helpful to all patrons. I feel like it would be hard to be a public librarian and be judgmental of anyone and truly do your job, so it is important to be open to everyone’s information needs. .