Preconceito, Opressão e Estratégias de Enfrentamento: Relato de Homens Homossexuais

Abstract

This is a qualitative approach study, developed with the objective of understanding the experiences of men in the acknowledgment and disclosure process of their homosexuality, focusing on the challenges and coping strategies. Nine men who came out as homosexuals participated in this study. The sample was recruited at random and conveniently, using the technique in chains called snowball sampling. The study was carried out in the city of Anapolis , Goias. For data collection, the semi-structured interview was used, in a place chosen by the participant. The data collection and analysis were performed simultaneously, according to the Theory-Based of Data. After the analysis, the participants trajectory were described regarding their feelings and experiences lived in the process of understanding of one's own homosexuality, up to coming out to family and friends. All of this process has a temporality and reveal a diversity of feelings, perceptions, personal and social difficulties, and confrontations, resulting in the construction of a new philosophy of life. The participants’ explanations of their homosexuality refer to the fact that it has been present since birth and therefore are innate. Homosexuals perceive themselves outside the standard built for the male sex, which causes internal suffering and conflicts. For the male homosexual, this process of acknowledgment is a solitary and suffered path, because prejudice and discrimination intensify personal conflicts, suppression of desires and social isolation, which contributes to physical and mental illness. Child sexual abuse, perpetrated by relatives such as uncles and cousins, was present in the life of most homosexuals in childhood and adolescence, but parents were not able to identify behavioural changes, emotional suffering, and the risks that their children were exposed to daily.To soften the many conflicts that were present in this process, the strategies used were to try to modify or suppress their desires, to dodge the suspicion of family members and to seek help in religion for the transformation of homosexual desires. The process of coming out to the family is described as a period permeated by fears of not being accepted by the family, which generates isolation, anxiety and depression. Relatives respond to this news in a variety of ways: their feelings go from anger to acceptance. They fear, above all, that the child will suffer social violence, become a transvestite and expose themselves to sexually transmitted infections. Yet the challenges after the disclosure were to face seclusion, expulsion from house and restrictions of coexisting with homosexual friends. In the social environment, the consequences involve abuse of drugs and alcohol, excessive spending, loss of friends, homophobia at school and at work, and seclusion from their religious circle. Coping strategies were constituted by: self-acceptance, overcoming feelings of hate and achieving financial independence. The feelings that emerged in the two processes, that of self-understanding and coming out to the family, brought maturity and a new individual philosophy of life. It is considered that unveiling the experience of homosexuals in the understanding of themselves contributes to seeking new models of health care by researchers, health professionals and managers to prevent the physical and mental illness of the LGBT population, in a humanized way, in the three levels of health care.