LGBT Activism and Reflexive Religion: A Case Study from Finland in the Light of Social Movements Theory

Abstract

In this article we focus on lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender/-sexual (LGBT) activism that is grounded in some form of religious identification. Using the approach of the study of social movements highlights the features that enable such a movement to operate and proliferate in the heterogeneous, fluid, and distinctly non-institutional context of the contemporary religious or spiritual field and also to effect changes in the ranks of a traditional religious institution. Religious LGBT activism is a process-oriented and network-shaped movement that attributes positive value to and takes advantage of—and gains resilience from—an internal diversity in contrast to being institutionally organised and programmatically or dogmatically defined. We suggest that the current public exposure and treatment of the issues around religion and sexuality should be seen as negations of old and legitimation of new religious identities—not only of sexual identities. Rather than mobilisation through collective identity, religious LGBT activism emerges as part of an active process of value production wherein reflexivity and diversity are central features fostered by both individual and collective negotiations of subjective and emotionally challenging and motivating experiences.