Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 23 Issue 3

comfortable jeopardizing my other support system [my family]. Tara (biracial, age 21) similarly felt that in disclosing, she would have to cut ties with some family members. She did not know if that was what she wanted, saying “I’ve gone back and forth; do I want to . . . do it now and cut my family off, but generally most people want to have their family in their life.” Sue (Indian American, age 20) said of potentially disclosing, “Well, I think they wouldn’t believe me. . . I would probably be thrown out of the house.” Sue also talked about how stressful it was to keep her sexual orientation from her family, and she described having to be careful when texting her queer friends while at home: I’m definitely anxious all the time when I’m home because my dad likes to take my phone and read through my texts. So, I have to go back and delete everything or hide my phone, or if I have [a] pretty girl on my phone, like a photo or something, I have to delete all of them. . . I would rather them not read my texts, but I can’t seem to avoid that, so I just have to delete everything. I think I’m more worried that they’ll find out. Despite having to be extremely cautious in her communications with queer friends, Sue still decided not to come out to her family because the consequences of coming out were perceived to be worse than the taxing effort she exerted in hiding her identity. Some women expressed the sentiment that as long as they could be themselves with somebody they cared about, then they did not have to be out to others, including specific family members. Tori (Black, age 25) discussed her decision not to come out to her grandfather, “I just don’t want to be disappointed cause I know what the conversation’s gonna be like, and I know he’s not gonna understand, … as long as my mom supports me, then I really don’t care. Like I love my grandpa just fine, but I’m not worried about it. Not Being Forthcoming with Friends and Others. Although all of the women had told at least one friend, they were cautious about coming out to friends and acquaintances. The environment mattered too, for how they would present themselves overall. There was a sense of not knowing how others would react if they knew; would they treat them differently or be invalidating? Tori discussed her challenges around wondering how to present herself at work. She said: So I feel like there’s a lot of times I just want to use a lot of queer language at work…but it’s harder cause I feel like if you’re a Black woman in a professional setting everyone’s looking at you way more than they look at everyone else and the things that I have to do… it’s very easy for someone to be like, “If you’re doing bad, well, you know, you’re a Black woman so you’re probably lazy.” Tara (biracial, age 21) explained her hesitation with telling others about her orientation: I told a select few people, who I already knew were queer themselves . . . I’m only going to gently tell people that I already know will respond well, because I don’t have time at this moment in my life to deal with someone not being supportive. Felicia (biracial, age 33) was selective about who she came out to because she wanted to protect her son. In a state where it was legal at the time to discriminate based on sexual orientation, coming out at work was risky. She explained: I have a kid to take care of, and I would love to be an activist on the front, but I don’t have any financial support from my family and not very much from his father. We’ve been homeless before, so not being out to everyone is part of taking care of my son. Emma (biracial, age 28) was also hesitant to tell others about her bisexuality because people will make their own assumptions. For her it was, “not necessarily [being] ashamed or trying to hide anything, but…I just don’t really want them to assume something that they’d go and talk to their friends or talk to whomever.” Not only was there a concern about people making assumptions, but there was discomfort in making others uncomfortable. Cassie (Black, age 20) explained: “I’m just going to be approaching the situation to make sure I don’t do anything that could be offensive ‘til I really know the person.” Amy’s (Chinese American, age 23) first time telling anyone about her bisexuality was to her best friend, who thought she was just going through a “phase.” “It was just a little bit invalidating, so I actually just didn’t talk about it for a while after that.” ii. Sharing in the Face of Uncertainty This subtheme largely revolved around the women’s sexual orientation identity. Although a few of these women felt comfortable sharing their sexual orientations with other individuals, for most of them tough decisions had to be made before they shared this information. Sometimes fear of consequences was still present, although the benefits of being open seemingly outweighed potential negative reactions. Some women decided that sharing in the face of uncertainty was better for them than hiding this part of themselves. © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 22 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 C “The In-Between Spaces of Those Labels”: Exploring the Challenges and Positives of Being a Bisexual Woman of Color Coming Out to Family. Of the five women with at least one family member aware they were bisexual, four chose to disclose on their own. The fifth revealed her bisexuality after being questioned by her mother. The four who autonomously came out felt that explicitly sharing this part of themselves with family was important to them, despite being nervous or hesitant. Tori (Black, age 25) was fairly certain that her mom knew that she might not be straight, but they had not had a conversation about her sexual orientation since she had become an adult. Tori described revisiting that conversation with her mother: “She was like, ‘I didn’t think we had to, it was fine,’ and I was like, ‘Good to know.!’ So yeah, it was pretty chill.”