This chapter discusses the design of the study, which explores how Black gay males have been navigating through schools and society while negotiating and understanding their
intersecting identities. In essence, I sought to uncover what can be learned from these young males. This is especially important due to the lack of research focusing on their lived experiences and how they are faring in various aspects of their lives.
Crotty (1998) defines methodology as the researcher’s “plan of action,” and while there are numerous methodologies from which I could have chosen, narrative inquiry was the design applied to this study. Narrative inquiry is a form of qualitative research (Chase, 2005) that provided me with a framework for understanding where these young males have come from and how they are progressing in their lives. According to Hatch and Wisniewski (1995), the terms life history and narrative are often used interchangeably. However, they note that for some researchers there is a slight difference and it is this difference that guides my work. The distinction is that “all life histories are narratives, not all narratives are life histories” (Zeller in Hatch and Wisniewski, 1995, p. 114). In other words, someone can write a story or they can answer questions in an interview that tell a story but not necessarily their story, their history; as I explain below, life history narratives embody certain elements. Through the participants’ life histories I sought to understand their lived experiences across their life span and across the following institutions: school, family, church, peers, community-based LGBTQ organizations, and social media.
Narrative Inquiry/Life Histories
Coming out of the social sciences, narrative inquiry seeks to illuminate one’s lived experiences (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Dhunpath, 2010; Riessman, 2008; Polkinghorne,
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1988). Richardson (1990) reminds researchers that narratives “humanize time” and provide a space to both reflect on a participant’s lived experience and plot a path for one’s future. In writing about what constitutes a narrative, Polkinghorne (1988) points out that there are three realms in which humans exist, “material realm, organic realm, and the realm of meaning” (p. 183). The material realm exists where “human existence shares properties of nonhuman matter” (p. 4). In this case, Polkinghorne uses the analogy of humans falling out of a window and accelerating in the same way and rate as other nonhumans or objects. Essentially, humans are objects taking up space like nonhuman entities. The organic realm refers to the human senses; humans share a “perceptual openness” toward the environment in the same manner as other animals. Last, the realm of meaning is an activity, and is constructed in linguistic form from a mental state distinct to human beings. Therefore, by employing narrative inquiry I focused on the actions of the participants and the meaning they make based on their lived experiences. It is within the realm of meaning that Polkinghorne situates narratives.
Polkinghorne (1988) views narratives as a means for people to create an understanding of their experience and the significance of the experience. He argues that one’s narrative is more than just a list of scattered events without any cohesion, but rather narratives consist of a plot with a beginning, middle, and end juxtaposed against the main theme of the narration, which ties together different events in the human experience. To demonstrate this, Polkinghorne provides the example that when therapists elicit narratives from their patients, the purpose is to find themes across the patient’s narrative. With the therapist’s assistance, the patient can examine their life (which includes a plot with a beginning, middle, and end) and get an understanding of how this path has caused and contributed to their current state. Conjointly, the patient can see what threads through their life are constant, constants that may need to be altered to obtain a
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different outcome in the future. If, however, a reading of the patient’s life history is missing certain elements, then the plot is not fully developed and thus a fractured understanding of one’s life becomes apparent and not much can be learned. Thus, it was important to get a life history that contained a beginning, middle, and end to generate a holistic understanding of what was being presented; life is a continuum of interrelated experiences.
A person’s narrative takes on myriad layers, and to say that the narrative consists of a beginning, middle, and ending, while helpful, does not go far enough. Therefore, I utilize the framework posited by Riessman (2008). William Labov theorizes there are six elements, which make up a “fully formed” narrative to which Riessman has summarized as:
an abstract (summary and/or “point” of the story); orientation (to time, place,
characters, situation); complicating action (the event sequence, or plot, usually with a crisis or turning point); evaluation (where the narrator steps back from the action to comment on meaning and communicate emotions—the “soul” of the narrative); resolution (the outcome of the plot); and a coda (ending the story and bringing action back to the present). (p. 84)
She goes on to note that not all narratives follow this script, as the sequencing differs for each participant. Polkinghorne’s (1988) idea of the realm of meaning is important here because it connects to Labov’s elements presented by Riessman. In the realm of meaning, one uses linguistics to connect events and pays attention to how events occur in conjunction with one another. Also, in the realm of meaning, the narrator looks from a holistic point of view and begins to examine the connection between different events; in other words the participant becomes conscious of their life through evaluating events they have overlooked as important to the plot or outcome of their life situation. Similarly, the aforementioned six elements are configured in a way that renders life history as a set of actions and experiences that occurs in tandem with one another. Additionally, the element of “evaluation” aligns with Polkinghorne’s
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idea of constructing meaning because the participant “steps back” to evaluate what has occurred in their life and identifies the connection between the events in a specific story.
For the purposes of my study, I use Riessman (who summarizes Labov) (2008) and Polkinghorne (1988) as guides because through interviews, I had the participants share narratives, while I was attuned to the elements posited by these narrative methodologists. In essence, the narrative inquiry process allowed the participant and myself to make meaning of their lived experiences (and my own). I intended for my participants to step back and evaluate their narrative, which in turn allowed them to comment and provide greater analysis of what these events currently mean and how they have informed their conception of their intersecting identities. In sharing my life history, I provided examples of specific events, “complicating action,” that have led me to this point in my journey, “resolution” and “coda,” as well as an analysis of how these events worked together; I would not have been able to understand my current state of being had I neglected major events that have shaped me and brought me to this current point in my life.
Furthermore, Tierney (2000) explains there are three questions a researcher should ask themselves while they are conducting life histories: (a) what is the reason for this narrative? (b) what constitutes the truth in these narratives? and (c) who is writing this narrative? First, in this study I intended for life histories to inform educators in ways to best support Black gay youth in their personal, social, and educational growth. While the participants’ narratives are not meant to be generalizable to all Black gay males, their narratives can provide a glimpse into ways
educators, policymakers, and leaders of other institutions can better understand and/or begin to engage with their Black gay students to meet these students’ needs. Second, taking from critical race and quare theories, I find truth in the voices and histories and self-presentations of my
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participants, from their standpoints (Johnson, 2008; Solórzano & Yosso, 2009). As Harding (1993) notes, due to the marginalized position of many based on gender, race, class, sexuality, and other identifiers of marginalization, particular experiences and ways of knowing have been devalued. Thus by placing value on their experiences and ways of knowing and doing, I might assist in challenging majoritarian beliefs regarding a universal truth experienced by all. Third, I wrote (reconstructed) and interpreted their life histories, and I describe later on how I maintained the integrity of their narratives. In sum, it is from Polkinghorne’s (1988) realm of meaning, Riessman’s (2008) six elements (a synthesis from Labov), and Tierney’s questions that I read, analyzed, interpreted, and presented the narratives.
Keeping in the tradition of Polkinghorne (1988) and the idea that narratives are much more than scattered events in one’s life, through the semi-structured interview questions my participants had the opportunity to tell their stories with the elements laid out by Riessman (2008). I anticipated that when participants were telling their stories, they would encompass multiple events and thoughts about specific moments that have shaped and influenced their lives. Such events in their lives are important because they have informed what they know about their intersecting identities and how they present themselves.
When discussing experience, Clandinin and Murphy (2009) take a Deweyian approach. They posit that the researcher must understand experience, a key to narrative inquiry, as a “conception of reality as relational, temporal, and continuous” (p. 599). In other words, relationally, a participant’s experiences are informed by one’s surroundings and interactions. Temporally, these experiences are not narrated as occurring in the past and left in the past, but rather as experiences that have shaped and continue to shape one’s life. Therefore, in order to understand the participants’ reality, I had to understand their past and present lived experiences
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in relation to one another. Also, Clandinin (2006) notes that as researchers we are entering the participants’ lives at a certain moment and must be conscious of that fact; in essence their life history is not done, so our writing of their narrative should never be a finished product.
Accordingly, narratives are presented with the understanding that from the moment researchers have entered to the moment researchers leave, a participant’s experiences and life histories will continue to evolve, so we can only know what we know up until our point of contact and departure.
Another key aspect of narrative inquiry is the focus on the context in which the narrative is told (Clandinin, 2006; Clandinin & Murphy, 2009; Riessman, 2008; Liamputtong & Ezzy, 2005; Richardson, 1990). When a narrative is told it is important to pay attention to the social context and myriad intersecting identities, which shape one’s life history. In the current study the social context, being a young Black gay male in Atlanta in the 1990s and early part of the new millennia, was crucial for understanding how such youth are negotiating intersecting racial and sexual identities as well as creating networks of support. From this social context, the narratives of the young men illuminated how different institutional factors have brought them to this current juncture in their lives. Essentially, the reality and social context of their experiences and the ways in which they have evolved were crucial to understanding the “plot” and the
“complicating action” to gain a conception of their current identity and presentation of self. This brings me to my research questions.
Research Questions
As I mentioned in the previous chapter, there is a dearth of literature focused on Black gay youth, and there are myriad issues facing these youth in schools. Also, for those studies of Black gay males, oftentimes the study is focused on HIV/AIDS and sex acts, mental health
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issues, and/or is quantitative and does not probe their life histories and how they are negotiating through society and understanding their intersecting identities (Arrington-Sanders, Leonard, Brooks, Celentano, & Ellen, 2013; Greene, 1994; Voisin, Bird, Shiu, & Krieger, 2013; Walker & Longmire-Avital, 2013). The purpose of this study was to place these young males at the
forefront of the research agenda to provide the scholarship and field with a more complete grasp on their reality, their strengths and struggles, how they form networks of support, and what informs their self-presentations. For example, Louis, one of Hawkeswood’s (1996) Black gay participants, explains how his family handled his coming out by noting, “I poured Mama a cocktail and just told them. The girls [sisters] giggled a bit. And Mama gave me a hug and said she sorta knew. They thought it was alright. So that was that” (p. 137). Conversely, Craig Washington (2012) recalls that when he was very young his father was angered that he dressed up in female clothes. His father punched him so badly that he felt as if a bomb had hit him and as he came to he remembers hearing his father telling him to “Get out of my sight” (p. 5). Hope and love were not lost on Craig at that moment his aunt comforted him and provided him with
support within an otherwise hostile environment. I bring forth these two experiences to
demonstrate that these events influenced how these gay men understand their reality, either from a loving standpoint or from a point of disappointment, yet they still managed to stay strong.
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1
How was I able to gather these narratives to elicit such lived experiences as Louis and Craig recall? It was important that I had questions guiding the study that kept me focused on the issue at hand: how young Black gay males say major events in their lives have helped them understand and construct their intersecting identities and presentations of self.
This research project had five guiding questions, which were the vehicle employed to gain insight into the life histories of participants. The questions were as follows:
• What do the narratives of Black gay youth reveal about the factors that support or
undermine their ability to successfully negotiate intersecting racial and sexual identities? • In what ways have the following institutions impacted Black gay youth identity
formation: school, family, church, peers, community-based LGBTQ organizations, and social media? To what degree has growing up in Atlanta contributed to identity
formation?
• In what manner have Black gay youth either experienced or created social networks of support?
• To what degree and how have Black gay youth used social media to create networks of support, navigate their intersecting identities, and present themselves?
• What can educators and policymakers learn from narratives of Black gay youth to best support them in their personal, social, and educational growth?
Participants
Participants included five males who self-identified as Black and gay; I use the term Black as a socially constructed racial marker (James, 2008) to refer to any person who identifies racially and ethnically as a part of the African diaspora. Also, four out of the five young males
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were “out” to their family and all were out to almost all of their sexual majority peers and friends, and are living their lives as gay men in their circle of gay friends and community.
These young males had to be between the ages of 18 and 24 and were not required be enrolled in formal schooling; in fact only three of the five were currently enrolled in higher education with two on hiatus and one having never attended. I chose five participants because I conducted three interviews per participant, with each interview allowing participants to delve deep into their life history. Since my study utilized a narrative inquiry methodology, my participants had to be willing to share their life history and social media documents in three separate interviews. One’s willingness to share their life history provides “thick descriptions” (Blumfield-Jones, 1995; Chase, 2005; Tracy, 2010), which allowed for a deep understanding of how they are navigating through society as young Black gay males.
Finally, since the project entailed exploring how Black gay youth are using social media to create networks of support, navigate their intersecting identities, and as a means for presenting themselves, it was important that each participant be an active user of social media. For the purposes of this study, I defined an active user of social media as one who uses any form of social media weekly (text messaging, Facebook, emailing, SnapChat, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). I am aware that the issue of economics is present due to this selection since some young males cannot afford to stay connected (Watkins, 2014) and this is addressed in my strengths and limitations section; however, due to the rapid rise and popularity of social media use by
teenagers in the past decade (boyd and Ellison, 2008; Ito et al., 2009), it is necessary to examine these young males’ use of social media. Also, they must have been willing to share self-selected portions of their social media pages and/or messages.
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In order to find participants, I put a call out to The Evolution Project, an organization that works with young Black gay and transgender males in the Atlanta region. I was unable to
procure any participants even though I had met with executives within the organization.
Therefore I found participants through word-of-mouth. One participant, Slick Rick was someone I had met in 2012, Charlie I met in October of 2013, and Zion I had met in February of 2014; Tae and Theodore were referred to me by mutual friends who were never told that they were chosen as participants. Participants were required be living within the metro-Atlanta region and have gone to at least one year of elementary school, all of middle, and all of high school in the metro-Atlanta region because I wanted to examine their experiences and life within the context of Atlanta’s visible Black community of sexual minorities (Jarvie, 2006b; Johnson, 2008; Kastanis & Gates, 2013; Levs, 2005).
Last, I looked for participants who perceived themselves as productively navigating the ups and downs of their lives; the definition of what is considered an “up” and a “down” was left up to my participants. This is an important piece of the study because it moved away from viewing my participants monolithically or through the lens of deficiency. Humans are complex creatures with periods of struggle and resiliency. Ignoring these facets of my participants’ lived experiences and how they have managed to emerge at this point in their lives would have caused me to present a linear narrative that tells half the story and would not provide educators and researchers a glimpse into the course of these young males’ lives. The methods I used to gather their life histories are important and detailed below.