女同志向家人現身歷程中手足角色探討

Abstract

本研究旨在探討女同志向家人現身歷程中故事，以及歷程當中手足所扮演角色如何給予協助。研究訪談了六位成年初期女同志，年齡界定於22歲至40歲之間，以及四位女同志的手足。 本研究方法採用敘說研究的資料分析，瞭解女同志與原生家庭互動，及手足結構下手足角色。本研究分為三大發現： 1.女同志現身後親子關係震盪效應，但手足關係變化不大，真正影響手足關係變化來自於生命週期改變，隨著生命成長，手足關係逐漸變佳。 2.手足結構左右手足因應女同志現身之表現，本研究發現長女背負著父母照顧弟妹的角色，容易產生較多為難。出生序幼者，面對女同志現身，較無積極作為。研究中亦可發現男性手足，具有一定性別意識，給予女同志一定的支持。在手足數量上，發現當手足數量越多時，隱含著年齡的差距，女同志在出櫃上，考量手足的年齡成熟度決定是否現身因素。 3.向手足現身不一定利於現階段向雙親現身，但其獲得心理支持提供未來現身資源，向手足現身後，手足呈現四種類型的回應，分別為指導建議型、默默協助型、左右為難型、心靈支持型，其中指導建議型對於女同志向父母現身，以及與女同志心理支持都有莫大幫助。 本研究可深入看見手足次系統之間互動，手足非以旁觀者角度看女同志現身，且女同志向父母現身後，無論父母有無接納，手足所提供心理支持，對於女同志心理壓力的緩解有其正面意義。

This study explored the process during which lesbians acknowledge their sexuality in front of their family members and the roles that their siblings play during this process. In this study, we interviewed six lesbians in their early adulthood (ages 22–44 years) and four siblings of these lesbians. We adopted a narrative method to understand how the lesbians interacted with their family members and their siblings’ role within the family’s sibling structure. The three major findings from this study are as follows: 1.The lesbians coming out had a concussive effect on their relationship with their parents but did not influence their relationship with siblings. However, a change in age influenced the relationship between the lesbians and their siblings. In other words, the relationship between lesbians and their siblings improved with age. 2.The sibling structure of the family influenced the siblings’ responses to the lesbians coming out. This study discovered that eldest daughters typically helped their parents look after their siblings; therefore, numerous problems easily occurred. Younger siblings generally showed no active responses to lesbians coming out. By contrast, male siblings often had gender awareness and provided support to the lesbians. When a lesbian had several siblings, the lesbian decided whether to come out depending on the maturity of their siblings. 3.Lesbians coming out to their siblings does not mean that they can easily come out to their parents. However, lesbians can obtain psychological support from their siblings. In this study, the lesbians’ siblings responded in four typical ways to the coming out: they provided suggestions, quietly provided help, felt they were in an awkward predicament, and provided psychological support. The siblings who provided suggestions to the lesbians substantially helped the lesbians when they came out to their parents and supported them psychologically. In this study, we understood the interaction between sibling subsystems. When the lesbians came out, their siblings typically did not act as bystanders. After the lesbians had come out to their parents, their siblings often provided psychological support to relieve their stress regardless of whether their parents had accepted them or not.