People find
some questions insulting.. this is no surprise and probably reflect deep rooted
issues in society about identity, prejudice, etc...
A
few decades ago, when ethnicity monitoring was introduced, many people
found the questions difficult, irrelevant, etc.... Even
today, peoples' reactions to
questions vary from refusing to answer questions to creating strange
ethnic identities (like Jedi !)... The reasons for these are multiple, but
shouldn't stop researchers with good intentions to do their
jobs.
Ethnicity
monitoring is more acceptable to many people nowadays for a variety
reasons... One of them is that
people have been consulted and asked how they would self identify. I believe
that this same principle of self-identification should be applied to questions
on sexuality/sexual orientation.
In 2003, I
took part in the Mayisha II study - a community based survey
of attitudes and lifestyles among five African communities (from
Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zaire, Zambia) living in the London boroughs of Camden
and Islington. This study had specific piloted questions on same sex
relationships. Details of these can be on the appendix of the main
report (see web link )http://www.ahpn.org/downloads/publications/Mayisha_II.pdf
A lesson from
the Mayisha II study is that in order to avoid 'insulting questions',
you need to pilot your questions with the specific LGBT communities (in
this case we did it with some of gay and lesbian people from the African
communities in question) . Given that Mayisha II was about sexual
lifestyles, researchers (all sexual health field workers) were
probably less likely to be homophobic, this probably explains why the
sexual orientation question was relatively easier to ask...
Regards
Cheikh
Traore
Health Inequalities Programme
Lead
Policy Support
Unit
Greater London
Authority
City
Hall
The Queen's
Walk
London SE1
2AA
Direct Tel: 0207
983 4641
-----Original Message-----
From:
Health of minority ethnic communities in the UK
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jane
Fountain
Sent: 19 February 2007 14:52
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Asking questions about
sexuality
Dear listmembers
Does anyone have any experience / references, etc
to share of asking members of, particularly, Black and minority ethnic
communities about their sexuality in a research project?
Researchers should do this (alongside asking
samples' ages, ethnicity and about any disabilities) in order to report
diverse needs to service planners, commissioners and providers.
Serivce providers should ask these questions of their clients to show that
they are catereing for the needs of all members of their population.
One issue is that, for some communities, the words
'heterosexual', 'homosexual', 'lesbian', gay man', and 'bisexual' are simply
not understood in English, and do not translate meaningfully into some
languages.
Another issue is that some respondents see this
question as, unfortunately, insulting, despite the researchers explaining why
it is being asked (this reaction is not exclusive to Black and minority ethnic
respondents).
Any comments on any aspect of this welcome.
Thanks in advance
Jane
Professor Jane Fountain
Centre for Ethnicity and Health
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
UK
01772 892 780
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