Looking Beyond the Birds and the Bees: Internalized Homophobia of Lesbian Parent

Abstract

Internalized Homophobia (IH) has linked it to both emotional health and mental illness outcomes. Lesbians with planned families reported significantly higher Internalized Homophobia specific to disclosure of sexual identification. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the challenges and struggles of having IHas a barrier to understanding their identity or coming out to others, including their children and to make people understand what the struggles of LGBT members are, especially the lesbian identity in the context of parenthood and the impact of social isolation, decision pressure, financial strain and other emotional issues that trigger IH. The researchers of the study used qualitative study. This study focused on the challenges, struggles and other issues that affect the participant. Thus, the Descriptive Qualitative research was selected so that the challenges and struggles of the lesbian parent were further explored. The researchers found associations between sexual orientation, relationship to the people around her, or social support characteristics and internalized homophobic discrimination. The researchers found that people’s perceptions and sayings affect the emotional aspect of the participants, which is also connected to the triggering of internalized homophobia. According to the participants, in the challenges of the lesbian parent including financial problems, they do not experience shortage. In social isolation, the attitudes and perceptions of the people about being part of LGBT community are not easy to deal with, and a lot of parenting problems influence the decision making of the lesbian parent. Therefore, providing a positive support for LGBT members can reduce experiencing internalized homophobia and other mental illness.