User talk:Sminion01/sandbox

Hi Sminion01!

After reading your article, I am very impressed by how many sources you have and how much information you have included. It was difficult for me to think of any other sections you should include in your article because it covered pretty much every base for me. Given the large amount of information, I was also impressed by how organized you kept it all and I thought it had good flow throughout.

While I think your article is well organized, I think there could be some structural changes to make it flow even better. Right now, your sections first consist of “History”, “sociolinguistic origin”, and then “closeted”. I think it will be easier on the reader if perhaps you had these three sections in a different order. For me, I found myself wanting to know the basics such as the origin of the term and what “closeted” really means and I think history could come after these basics are explained. I would suggest that perhaps you could begin your contents section with “sociolinguistic origin”, “closeted”, and then “history”. My next suggestion would be to make the article as a whole easier to read. There are several run-on sentences and some of the language and words you use seem more complex considering majority of the Wikipedia audience is younger. Some examples of these words I found are averse, polemics, etc.

I thought the section titled “legal issues” was interesting and I think there is potential for more information here. One reference I would suggest is. This article will allow you to go more in depth regarding the rights of LGBT youth and how these rights are constantly being violated by our legal system.

Marrosann (talk) 21:22, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

Hi Sminion01,

I like your topic choice and commend you for selecting a long and seemingly difficult article. Your contributions will be valuable!

The additions to the section for "Further Reading" was a good call, and it strengthens the article. Your additions under "LGBT identity development" is important, too, as the heading definitely provides room for youth implications. You could add more here while also including more global considerations, or at least of minorities in the U.S. We know that physical location and culture influences the sexual identity-making process in youth, which would contribute significantly towards attitudes about coming out. You could even reference Lorena Garcia's findings to show that social divisions resulting from minority statuses factor into the construction of youth sexual identity in addition to culture. Another good study of Puerto Ricans and the relationship of gay youth identities and coming out is:

The history section and those that address themes of coming out portrayal in the media, activism, and pop culture are all exhaustive. I think the article certainly features a sufficient inclusion of public figures who have come out. I think you could insert more discussion of documented impacts for youth who come out in the beginning of the "Effects" section. As you work towards completion of your draft, perhaps more references to social consequences for outed youth would be helpful to increase youth representation in the category on effects. For example this article uses the minority stress model to gain insight into the stressful experiences of youth who come out and how it could possibly effect their mental health: A lot of research exists around bullying on grounded in the assumption of homosexuality, but specific resources about verbal or physical assaults on youth who come out would fit nicely in this section. An interesting resource I found that reviews an ethnographic approach of high school interviews like Garcia is:

Overall, there is not a significant global perspective global perspective of the issue in the article. After all, the goal of the project is to strike a more inclusive global characterization of the article topic, and the main issue with this particle according to Wikipedia is a failure to capture a worldwide view. I see under the "Legal issues" heading that other countries are mentioned but very summarily. I also notice the link in this section to a specific articles on LGBT rights by country or territory. Still, I believe there is reason to include more global views specifically about the prospect of coming out in your article. I think you can work the South Africa references from the list of proposed sources on your user page into the article. Here is one on Singapore: While not directly addressing the process of "coming out," sources about quality of life in relation to sexual orientation in other countries can provide information worthy of inclusion in your article, because it indicates the nature of coming out and its consequences in that culture. Here is a source that completes a four-state comparative study of happiness levels among outed LGBTQ and straight college students:

Also, in terms of structure, I would place the sociolinguistic information immediately after the lead paragraph and before the historical overview to set the stage for the rest of the article. Perhaps "Closeted" would be more appropriate as a subcategory under "Sociolinguistic origins." Furthermore, logically I would think that "In/Out metaphors," which discusses problematic rhetoric, should follow either "Sociolinguistic origins" or "Identity issues" rather than "Effects."

Good job and good luck with the rest of your project! Mhxelamh (talk) 22:35, 11 November 2014 (UTC)