Reflections on ethical problems encountered in field research on Mexican male homosexuality: 1968 to present.

PIP: This paper presents field research on the major ethical problems in the study of male homosexuality in Mexico from 1968 up to the present and describes a solution to these problems. Ethical concerns about the psychological and social well-being of respondents are heightened in when the focus of a study is on a highly private, sensitive and sanctioned human behavior such as sexual relations. The ethics of a gay man conducting participant observation studies of male homosexuality tend particularly to be open to special scrutiny and suspicion. Most of the major ethical concerns about the study of male homosexuality are related to 1) the methods used by the researcher to collect participant-observation and interview data and 2) the possibility that the dissemination of study findings by the researcher to the outside world may lead to unwanted adverse effects on project respondents and on the population they represent. The use of the participant-observer in gathering of data in the field presents a serious ethical problem that must be addressed by sex researchers. Thus, future researchers contemplating ethnographic participant observation studies in the field must take into account the reality that it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to separate their private sex lives completely from their research.^ieng