Coming out et ordre normatif en Islande

Abstract

From a survey by in-depth interviews conducted with 40 homo/bi-sexuals in Iceland in 2005, this work analyzes the different stages of the coming out through the societal conditions that respondents have encountered during their self coming out and coming out. In a second part, the perception of the reception of the news by their relations is discussed. At the time of the survey, the social stigma is still quite strong, but in process of decline while the legal dispositions towards full equal rights with heterosexuals is near completion, but prejudices still rooted in the collective unconscious are difficult to erase. The stigma of homosexuality still has a very strong effect on the individual. The period of self coming out is hard to live and indicates that the individual does not feel comfortable to reveal a sexuality different from the majority. The normative injunction that leads people to defer acceptance of themselves is also reflected in the difficulties of coming out in a society that keeps an heteronormative organization with little educational efforts to normalize in people minds, behaviors that laws recognize as legal. Homophobia is still present, underlying or sometimes visible, although it seems almost under social control in Iceland. This is thus after a more or less considerable symbolic violence in different situations that an individual can come out.