Date of Award
8-1-2011
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Sociology
First Advisor
Dunn, Jennifer
Abstract
The ex-gay movement in the United States has, for the last three decades, argued that there can be "freedom from homosexuality." Available movement narratives shape how individuals struggling with homosexual desires understand their past, present and future. To gain insight into the identity work of people involved in the movement, those who have left and those who exist on the margins, I engaged in collected 31 semi-structured interviews, engaged in participant observation of an ex-gay conference and conducted a narrative analysis of movement narratives. In three journal article style manuscripts, I discuss my findings concerning the narrative identity work of each group.
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