401 - Thematic Session. Sexuality and Religion

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

This panel will explore some of the diverse ways that religious traditions understand, shape and attempt to monitor sexuality. Melissa Wilde examines the ways in which early divisions in the American religious field that seemed connected to sex and gender (e.g. birth control) were really about race and class. Bernadette Barton will discuss the ways in which Conservative Christian attitudes slow the progress of gay rights. In particular, she will discuss the gap between those states with institutional protections for gay people, including marriage, and those that do not even have a state- wide fairness ordinance. Roger Friedland and Janet Afary will discuss Islam, gender and intimacy.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Elizabeth A. Armstrong, University of Michigan

Presider

• Orit Avishai, Fordham University

Panelists

• Melissa J. Wilde, University of Pennsylvania

• Bernadette Barton, Morehead State University

• Roger Friedland, Departments of Sociology and Religious Studies

• Janet Afary, University of California-Los Angeles