Beyond ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’: How Politics and Religion Shape Parents’ Diverse Initial Reactions to Their Child Coming Out

Past research shows that parents’ conservatism and religiosity are associated with more negative responses to their child coming out, but with few specifics of the parents’ reactions provided. In this study, we assessed the coming-out narratives of 966 LGBTQ+ individuals (M age = 33.05; 56% women, 28% men, 17% gender-diverse individuals), using reflexive thematic analysis followed by content coding. We created a typology of 12 different parental reactions to their child coming out, then employed logistic regressions to assess associations between parents’ perceived conservatism and religiosity and each of these reactions. Parents’ conservatism and religiosity were indeed associated with more negative and less positive reactions, but more specific reaction subtypes emerged. For example, negative parental reactions encompassed angry volatility, avoidance, awkward disappointment, and attempts to control the child’s identity or identity expression. Parent’s conservatism was generally more strongly associated with their reactions than religiosity, but religiosity was more strongly related to specific reaction subtypes, such as accepting the child but not their identity. Overall, our study provides a richer and more comprehensive picture of parental reactions to coming out, potentially providing helpful information and guidance for support providers.