Family, Housing, and Me: How Identity Changes Around Gender and Sexuality Reshape Family Dynamics and Experiences of Housing Stability

Theories about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth and housing instability often document “coming out” to the family as a one-time event and often focus on parental acceptance or rejection as a singular event as well. However, youth’s gender and sexuality can change, and family relations, including experiences of staying housed by family members, are often complex. This project is the first U.S. longitudinal study of LGBTQ youth, housing, and family relations. We followed 83 LGBTQ youth participants for two years with qualitative interviews in summer 2022, 2023, and 2024 that examined changes in gender, sexuality, housing, and family relations. The youth were 16-19 years old at the start of the study, and the youth participants come from either South Texas or the Inland Empire of California – two understudied areas in LGBTQ and housing research.

By following the youth for two years, this study shows how housing processes and family dynamics unfold over time, capturing the complex dynamics of gender, sexuality, family support, safety, and housing stability during emerging adulthood. More specifically, we show how many youth changed their sexual and/or gender identity over this study’s two-year period. Furthermore, these gender and sexual identity changes often reshaped family dynamics and experiences of housing. For instance, when one youth moved back home after a breakup, they changed their sexuality from gay to bisexual to appease their parents and to ease tensions at home. Additionally, youth who changed their gender identity during the study often did not disclose this change to parents, as youth did not want to risk losing the housing support that family members provided. Ultimately, qualitative longitudinal work is necessary to capture and understand the actual complexities of youth’s lives, including their dynamic experiences of gender, sexuality, housing, and the family.