7) Hamer: Coming Out

Hamer's study on the coming-out behaviors of men who identified as gay was interesting, though again I feel like it was too small of a sample group. Only 8 men volunteered to take part in the interviews; there is no way that this small group can give answers indicative of the entire population. However, her findings were interesting and her research important to not only the library field, but to the LGBT community, so her paper should not be dismissed on that ground alone.

Like Chatman's paper, Hamer found that information blunting and secrecy involving information need were used to protect the men from perceived dangers of the outside world (Hamer 2003, pg. 84). Hamer notes that the second and sixth findings in Chatman's Theory of Information Poverty did not apply to the men in the study (Hamer 2003, pg. 84-85). Again, I believe that Hamer's very small subject pool may account for this. Had Hamer interviewed more men, the findings may have been different. By limiting the study to university students (Hamer 2003, pg. 70), who are often from the middle and upper classes, Hamer's findings were skewed from the beginning, which may explain why she didn't find evidence that "[o]utsiders contribute to information poverty, which is linked to class distinction, by preventing information access" (Hamer 2003, pg. 84). It's possible she found no evidence for number six, which deals with new information on daily issues, because of similar reasons: being university students, the subjects have a wide variety of news sources and therefore don't rely singly on TV news or other people within a limited community for information.

Information poverty was noted as a barrier to gay men looking to better understand their sexuality and the gay community. I found this fascinating - Even in this world of immediate access of information through the Internet, there are sill significant impediments to information. In addition to the "perceived void" of topics relating to homosexuality, these men also mentioned a fear of disclosure, homophobia, poor classification and inefficient retrieval/finder systems as barriers (Hamer 2002, pg. 87). In these ways librarians have this portion of their patrons. I believe this is an egregious fail; people who identify as LGBT are already a vulnerable population, having to worry about discrimination or even violence directed at them. By failing to provide them with a library environment where they feel safe and are able to locate relevant resource materials, libraries are essentially saying that people who are LGBT aren't equal to heterosexual patrons, for whom the bulk of resources (if not all resources) are intended.

I agree with all of Hamer's suggestions for how libraries should proceed in light of her research, such as include pamphlets or self-check out methods (Hamer 2003, pg. 86). I would also add that it's time for libraries to fight actively and directly against discrimination. While it is important for a library to save and make available all sort of information, including that which may be homophobic, it's ridiculous and disgusting that in this day and age, hatred directed at people who identify as LGBT can be protected as freedom of speech. By standing up against this vocal minority of fear mongers, the library could become a haven not only for the LGBT community, but other people who have been discriminated against.