Interview

Nick Wankier
My interviewee.

● The gentlemen that I had the pleasure of interviewing is a dear

friend of mine named Eli.
● He is is from Utah but grew up mostly in California.
● Moved back to Utah after high school.
● He grew up in the LDS church but no longer practices.
● He is also gay.
Preparing the Interview & Research

● To prepare for this interview I spent time with with my

interviewee, Eli, so that I could get a sense of what he wanted
to tell me about.
● I spent time researching a few different directions the
interview could go.
● I came up with two sets of questions based on his responses.
How I decided on these questions.

● I chose the questions based on the conversations that I had

with Eli and with Dr. Kadiri.
● I used this interview as an opportunity to get to know my
friend better. I feel like these questions helped me understand
him better and grow closer to him.
The Questions

Q. If you could please talk to me about your childhood and the

experiences you had growing up?

A. Grew up in a upper middle class family what was mixed race, He

was involved in the LDS church but struggled with his faith
because of his sexual orientation. Many of the people who were
around him were white people.
The Questions...
Q. What kind of communities were you involved with? Who Were
your peers as a child, teen, and as an adult? How did they treat you
when you came out as a gay man?

A. He told me that the church communities played a big part in his life as a youth but
he was part of the rebellious group of kids challenging the status quo. As a teen in
California he was obsessed with being apart of the popular crowd and involved in his
school’s choir. As an adult he told me that he has really struggled finding a peer group
since he moved back to utah esspecially in the LGBTQ comminity. He told me that
when he came out his peers treated him better then before.
The Questions...

Q. What was your family experience like?

A. Eli spoke to me about how his family life was okay with his
mother and siblings, but there was definitely some strained
relationship issues with his step father in his teen years.
The Questions...

Q. Growing up in a mixed race family, was the topic of race ever

brought up?

A. He Expressed to me that his parents never spoke to him about

racism and kind of swept it under the rug.
The Questions...

Q. Did you find it difficult navigating your personal identity as a

black man and your family identity coming from a mixed race
family?

A. Eli told me that because of the lack of communication in his

family when he was younger that he struggles with his family
identity and the relationships he has with them. As far as his
personal Identity he told me that he is still struggling to find it.
The Questions...

Q. Did you ever find it difficult to be accepted as a gay black man

rather than a white gay man?

A. Eli expressed to me the difficulty that he has had being accepted

as a gay black man in Salt Lake then he ever did in California.
The Questions...

Q. Have you ever experienced and discriminations from inside the

LGBTQ community?

A. Eli spoke about the difficulties that he has had in Utah with that
community he struggled to find friends and it affected his dating
life he felt because he was not white with blonde hair and blue
eyes, he struggled to find any type of companionship.
The Questions...

Q. Have you ever experienced any type of depression related to

anything I have asked you?

A. Eli told me that he has struggled with depression for a long time.
He told me that being a gay man is not easy, but when you are
black it makes it that much more difficult because not only do you
receive hatred and bigotry for being gay, but it becomes racially
charged as well.
The Questions...

Q. In my research I found that the rate of suicide attempts are much

higher for those who are gay and of color compared to those who
are gay and white, what do you think of this statistic and are you
surprised?

A. Eli told me that he was surprised that the rates of attempts are
not higher than what they are. He also told me that he was apart of
that statistic.
References

Human Rights Campaign. ( n.d.). Being African American & LGBTQ: An Introduction.
Retrieved from https://www.hrc.org/resources/being-african-american-lgbtq-an-introduction.

Mayes, V. M., & Cochran, S. D. ( n.d.). The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the
American Public Health Association (APHA) publications. Retrieved from
https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.91.11.1869.

O'Donnell, S., Meyer, I. H., & Schwartz, S. (2011, June). Increased risk of suicide attempts
among Black and Latino lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093285/.