Reframing, Reconciling, and Individualizing: How LGBTQ Activist Groups Shape Approaches to Religion and Sexuality

• In Event: 3164 - Religious Identities in Tumultuous Times

Abstract

Past research reveals the multiple ways that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer people of faith grapple with the connections between their religious and sexual identities. Some people perceive their religious identities to be in conflict with their sexual identities, but others believe their religious and sexual identities to be compatible. Some people look to religious authorities for guidance in unpacking the connections between their religious and sexual identities, whereas others rely on a strategy of religious individualism to form understandings of their religious and sexual identities. What factors shape the ways people perceive and unpack their religious and sexual identities? Drawing on 77 interviews with participants in LGBTQ activist groups at four Christian colleges and universities, this article links variations in the LGBTQ groups mobilizing on Christian campuses – direct action groups, educational groups, and solidarity groups – to the ways that members perceive and unpack the connections between religious and sexual identities. Direct action group participants draw on the liberal social justice tradition within Christianity to argue that religious and minority sexual identities are compatible. Educational group members take seriously the conservative Christian premise that religious and minority sexual identities are in conflict and learn how to reconcile them. Finally, solidarity group participants mine a variety of religious traditions to form individualized understandings about religion and sexuality. As the article shows, context matters in the study of religion and sexuality.

Author

• Jonathan Scott Coley, Oklahoma State University