Illuminating the trauma of the LGBTQ closet: A cinematic-phenomenological study and film about existential rights

Abstract

ABSTRACT This phenomenological research study investigated the lived experience of the LGBTQ closet and presents the research findings in two ways: a written hermeneutic interpretation, and a short film called illuminate which expresses the phenomenology of the closet through poetic cinematography. I developed a method called “cinematic-phenomenological research,’ for which I collected and interpreted phenomenological descriptions from five participants about their experience of being closeted about their non-hetero sexual orientations. Then, I collaborated with artists in a process of phenomenological filmmaking to transform the thematic research findings into the film illuminate. Hermeneutic research findings suggest that the LGBTQ closet is lived as a traumatic loss of existential rights – the right to truth, freedom, love, hope, and power. Each scene in illuminate expresses these existential rights cinematically to evoke the sociopolitical trauma of being in the closet, and the healing and liberation of coming out (viewable at www.illuminatethecloset.com). The study introduces an existential rights paradigm for human rights discourse, based on the premise that truth, freedom, love, hope, and power are basic human rights and mental health imperatives. The study also confirms that the closet can induce PTSD symptomology among queer people, and offers insight about how psychotherapists can foster empowerment in the face of sociopolitical trauma among marginalized clients.