Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2020

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Sociology

Degree Program

Sociology, MA

Committee Chair

Best, Latricia

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Christopher, Karen

Committee Member

Christopher, Karen

Committee Member

Story, Kalia

Author's Keywords

Gay men; masculinity; race; intersectionality

Abstract

Prior studies regarding outness among gay men have often focused on internalized homophobia as a barrier to coming out for gay men, while less emphasis has been placed on external homophobia. Drawing upon social construction theory and Connell’s hierarchy of masculinity, I utilize data from the 2010 Social Justice Sexuality Project to complete an ordinary least square regression to examine the impact of external homophobia on the level of outness among the 987 gay men in this study. In this study, I find that gay men who were exposed to external homophobia reported decreased levels of outness. Further, I find race impacted the level of outness among the gay men. Drawing from prior research on race, masculinity, and sexuality, I suggest that men with intersecting identities are not only held accountable to the White, heteronormative definition of hegemonic masculinity, but to other non-hegemonic forms of masculinity as well.

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