Coming out experiences are a formative stage of LGBTQ+ identity. The study's purpose is to understand how outness about LGBTQ+ identity and coming out experiences impact LGBTQ+ political identity. Using a joint Egan-Worthen framework for my study, I surveyed LGBTQ+ college students from three St. Louis colleges to test my hypotheses that greater outness and more negative coming out experiences impacted one's political ideology and political activity. For my analysis, I used pairwise correlations and multiple regression analyses. I found a statistically significant relationship between outness and political ideology but weak support for my hypothesis that greater outness results in a more liberal ideology. I did not find a statistically significant relationship between outness and political activity, nor statistically significant relationships between coming out experiences and political ideology and activity. As the first study to directly analyze the relationship between coming out experiences and political identity, these results raise the questions about how progress for the LGBTQ+ community in the last few decades might impact the different pathways that result in LGBTQ+ people being more liberal and politically active than non-LGBTQ+. In my results, I point to the variable of having an LGBTQ+ friend being a notable variable that did have an impact of making an individual more likely to be liberal and to be politically active.

Joe would like to thank their faculty sponsor Dr. Morgan Hazelton for their support of this project.