Heteronormativitet i Socialtjänsten : Homo- och bisexuellas upplevelser av bemötandet

The purpose of the essay is to examine Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual person’s experiences of the Social Services treatment. Our question is: How do Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual person’s experience the treatment in a relief seeking situation at Social Services? We have a social constructive point of view. Our theoretical foundation is heteronormativity, heterosexism, homophobia, coming out/disclosure, intersectionality, master suppression techniques and we discuss Social Services as a system. We used a qualitative research method and have done five semi-structured interviews, with three men and two women aged 17- 31 years. The empirical material has been analysed by using IPA (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) model, where we used the interviewees own words through which we composed three major themes; Starting point in the meeting with Social Services, Sexual orientation and the treatment of the Social Service. What kind of contact our interviewees had with the Social Services and how they perceive their sexual orientation and their experiences of how it is to be gay, lesbian or bisexual is of relevance in their contact with the Social Services. It will affect their ability to act and to what extent they will feel able to be open about their sexuality. Our interviewees tell of a treatment by the Social Services which in various ways makes their sexual orientation invisible, ridicules or puts blame and shame on them. We also have a few examples of neutral treatment from the Social Services concerning sexual orientation. In the essay we have divided the care relationship into a systematic level and a personal level. Our interpretation is that Social Services on a systematic level have a heteronormative culture in the organization. This leads to a heterosexistic treatment. The personal level gives the individual social worker a certain amount of flexibility and sometimes it leads to a homophobic treatment but it can also lead to a treatment that makes it possible to break with the heteronorm. We seek a Social Services that actively works towards breaking down the heteronormativity inside the organization