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

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, and present a solution to these problems.

Abstract

The author candidly presents the major ethical problems he encountered over time in conducting field research on male homosexuality in Mexico from 1968 to now and describes how they were resolved. Some of the research methods used in pioneering studies by Laud Humphreys thirty years ago and by Ralph Bolton more recently are then discussed to exemplify some of the ethical problems researchers may have to resolve while gathering data on male homosexual behaviours in the field. Looking even further back in time, recently revealed hidden qualitative research methods used by Kinsey and his colleagues back in the 1940s are also noted. The final part of the discussion focuses on the role the private sex life of an ethnographer may play in the research design and data collection strategies of a study in the field. Serendipity is revealed to be an important but often hidden factor in the design of ethnographic field studies of human sexual behaviours. When knowledge from an ethnographer's private sex life is used to inform field research on human sexual behaviours, a careful and continuous review must be made with respect to the ethicality of its effect on the research design.