Replacing Either/Or With Both/And: Illustrations of Perspective Alternation

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of perspective alternation as an approach that might be helpful in moving through recurrent limitations or impasses within the literature about lesbian, gay, and bisexual people of color and sexual minority populations more broadly. Specifically, perspective alternation is conceptualized as taking on and moving between different perspectives. The authors use perspective alternation as a way to integrate different emphases offered by the reactants to the Major Contribution. They illustrate alternation between shared and unique experiences, group comparison and individual differences, inclusiveness and distinctiveness, and nonprototype and prototype perspectives and suggest that such perspective alternation can help to identify the assumptions, biases, and limitations of different perspectives and reveal what is gained by each perspective.