Joining an Activist Group

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question of why students join LGBT activist groups at Christian colleges and universities. Specifically, the chapter describes the pathways to participation for three groups of activists: politicized participants, religious participants, and LGBT participants. Politicized participants – those for whom politics and activism are central parts of their identity – all grew up in families that were highly supportive of LGBT rights and had all been involved in some type of activist organization as early as high school. Thus, they arrived at their Christian colleges and universities with a commitment to social justice and a proclivity toward activism. Conversely, religious participants – those whose religious convictions were most salient in their decisions to join LGBT groups – had all been raised in families that condemned homosexuality, and none had been involved in previous social movements. Only a few of these individuals even supported LGBT rights by the time they joined. Finally, LGBT participants – those who personally identify as LGBT but lack strong political or religious convictions – are the most diverse lot, but they all hold in common their basic support for LGBT rights and an interest in meeting other people like them. The chapter advances sociological theory on micromobilization.