Understanding Sexual Identity: An Art-Based Narrative Inquiry
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Western culture understands sexuality on a polarized system, and this organizing system limits the complexity of sexual minorities and categorizes people as abnormal, or differing from social norms. Many seek justification by searching for determinants of sexuality to reduce marginalization, but sexual minorities may find it difficult to articulate a personal meaning for a sexual minority without referencing social stereotypes. This narrative inquiry explored the lives of four, adult sexual minorities in the District of Columbia to examine how marginalization affects the understanding and development of sexual identity over time. The narrative inquiry showed through open-ended interviews and visual art making exercises, how personal stereotypes contribute to the experience of marginalization and high levels of stress. With the prevalence of mental health disorders and substance abuse among sexual minorities, the approach to the inquiry utilized a co-construction process that built relationships with the participants to explore the understanding of sexuality. Relationships played a key role in the participants' narratives and may be a way in which sexual minorities understand and construct identity. The stories showed how relationships contribute to the improvement and potential decline of psychological well-being. The narratives were investigated through a primary and secondary discourse analysis, and the secondary analysis also explored the visual data to connect the observations with findings from the discourse. The participants' artwork connected visual metaphors of compartmentalization to sexual minorities' "insider-outsider" status where each participant appeared to move between positions of identifying with sexual minority culture or another culture. This study found that identity construction of sexuality should not be limited to a single aspect of sexuality; sex, sexual orientation, sex-role presentation, and gender identity must be considered to offer a sociocultural and historical approach.
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