Trying not to think ‘straight’: conducting focus groups with lesbian and gay youth

Abstract

This article provides a critical account of conducting focus groups with gay and lesbian youth. Drawing on the insights of queer theory it attempts to reframe issues around sexual diversity by examining the heteronormalizing processes at work during these focus groups. This analysis is undertaken through a ‘study of the limits’ of the author’s own thoughts and practice while implementing a research methodology that endeavored to destabilize heterosexuality. The aim of this examination is to better understand the way in which heteronormativity operates to discursively constitute heterosexual normalcy and render anything but thinking ‘straight’ unintelligible. In the course of such analysis the way in which sexual identity politics are played out between gay and lesbian participants and a straight researcher is addressed.