Study of the coming out process and coping strategies of lesbian women

The purpose of this study was to document the coming out process in lesbians and to create a seven-stage model to describe this process. Unlike other studies of lesbians, this study included African-American lesbians and older lesbians. The sample comprised 118 women in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. Eighteen of these women were evaluated as bisexual or predominantly heterosexual in orientation; these women were not included in the analysis of the data. One-fourth of the remaining 100 women who completed all the measures were African-American. One-half of the sample indicated no current religious affiliations and the remainder fit into the expected proportions of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Between February and May, 1979, a team of six interviewers conducted personal interviews with the participants. These interviews consisted of 120 precoded questions and several open-ended questions. Major categories in the interviews include coming out, job discrimination, societal oppression, coping strategies, religion, personal attitudes, relating in a heterosexual society, and demographic information. The Murray Center has all computer-accessible data. Typed responses to the open-ended questions are also available.