LGBT Christians Research Articles

On being LGBT-affirming pentecostals: exploring affirming resources from within Indonesian pentecostal churches

ABSTRACT LGBT Christian activism in Indonesia was initiated by progressive wings within ecumenical denominations, while backlashes were mostly voiced by evangelical groups. Disrupting such a binary, we interviewed affirming Pentecostal church leaders and members (both LGBT persons and allies) to explore theological, discursive, and congregational resources that were drawn upon to constitute an affirming evangelical position. While previous studies in the West have paid significant attention to theological reinterpretations of texts and traditions, our findings demonstrated that there are other contextual resources to explore, both at the personal, communal, and institutional levels which may support an affirming subjectivity for allies and LGBT persons themselves. Three resources were identified in this study, namely, a strong sense of personal moral agency, the tight-knit church community, and the self-governed, market-driven church institution. The implications of the study are discussed in relation to Pentecostal theologies and LGBT Christian activism in contemporary Indonesia.

The impact of religiosity on the psychological well-being of LGBT Christians

Individuals who identified as LGBT and Christian were administered measures of religiosity, their religious organization’s view of homosexuality, internalized homonegativity (IH), and psychological well-being, including eudaimonic well-being (an approach to well-being that focuses on meaning, self-realization, and optimal functioning rather than pleasure attainment and pain avoidance), depression, stress, and anxiety. Religiosity was associated with higher levels of eudaimonic well-being and lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Compared to participants who rated their church as rejecting of homosexuality, participants who rated their church as accepting of homosexuality had lower levels of depression and IH and higher levels of eudaimonic well-being. Moderation analyses indicated that church attendance moderated the relationship between religiosity and psychological well-being at moderate to high levels of church attendance, suggesting that church attendance plays a more important role than other religious practices in the relationship between religiosity and psychological well-being. Analyses indicated that IH and attendance did not mediate, nor did church type moderate, the relationship between religiosity and psychological well-being. Implications of findings are discussed.

Exploring Lesbian and Bisexual Catholic Women’s Narratives of Religious and Sexual Identity Formation and Integration

ABSTRACT Many LGBT people with a Christian upbringing experience conflict between their religious and sexual identities. Many resolve this conflict by leaving Christianity, others by moving to affirming churches. Some research has examined the experiences of LGBT people who choose to attend conservative churches; however, there has been very little research on the experiences of non-heterosexual women in the Catholic Church. Narrative and thematic analyses of data collected through qualitative interviews with six non-heterosexual Catholic women revealed several ways participants had integrated their faith and sexuality: acceptance from other Catholics, distinguishing between the Church and God, meeting other LGBT Christians, and developing a personal relationship with God. These reflect strategies adopted by gay Catholic men and LGBT Christians attending Protestant churches. Nonetheless, participants reported that their experiences varied from those of gay Catholic men due to gay men being more visible and more subject to prejudice within the Church.

Queer liveability: Inclusive church-scenes

This article explores queer religious youths’ engagement with the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) – a church founded as a space of worship for LGBT Christians. Interested in sources of well-being in queer people’s lives, we show how MCC provided young religious queer people with a sense of home, family, and a phenomenological experience of ‘fit’ and ‘ease’. We connect to literature on the subjectivization of religion and suggest that MCC is a significant actor in this process, with spatial and liturgical practices that encourage the development of one’s own spiritual journey. However, we also temper these claims by showing how ‘tradition’ was still valued by many participants, evidenced in their continued affiliation with other (often non-inclusive) churches. We argue that this complicates arguments regarding ‘inclusivity’ as these ‘non-inclusive’ churches could also provide spaces of succour and support. Finally, we also consider MCC’s relationship with queerness/LGBT: participants differed in whether or not they saw MCC as part of or apart from the ‘scene’, complicating questions raised about assimilation vs. separatism, with the relative weight of ‘LGBT’ and ‘Christian’.

Godly Homonormativity: Christian LGBT Organizing in Contemporary Poland

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the emergence of Christian LGBT organizing in Poland and the production of what I term godly homonormativity via a particular strand of organizing exemplified by Wiara i Tęcza (WiT; Faith and Rainbow). I argue that despite being an important initiative representing people—LGBT Christians—whose voices are often excluded from the mainstream LGBT movement, WiT’s project is a largely assimilationist one, seeking acceptance within the existing patriarchal and highly inequitable power relationship of the Catholic Church. Consequently, WiT is generative of a mostly normalizing set of ideas that reinforces rather than challenges heteronormativity and that also colludes with the neoliberal project that promotes “a privileged form of gay life that attempts to replicate aspects of state”—and in the case of WiT church—endorsed “heterosexual primacy and prestige located in the home” (Brown, 2009, p. 1499).

“I Found God in The Glory Hole”: The Moral Career of a Gay Christian

This article examines processes wherein Gay Christian men transition from closeted religious people to openly Gay Christians. Based on 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christian church and a synthesis of research into LGBT Christian experience over the past 25 years, we conceptualize these transformations as a moral career consisting of (1) essentializing religious belief and practice (2) emotionalizing early religious experience, (3) spiritualizing coming out of the closet and religion, and (4) sexualizing coming back to religious participation. In so doing, Gay Christian men interpreted the stages of their lives as an ongoing sexual–religious process wherein they became the spiritual and sexual beings they believed God always wanted them to be. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) the moral career of a Gay Christian, (2) the usefulness of conceptualizing religious and sexual transitions as elements of a moral career, and (3) the reproduction of religious privilege.

“They Just Don’t Stand for Nothing”: LGBT Christians’ Definitions of Non-Religious Others

In this exploratory study, I examine how a group of LGBT Christians conceptualized non-religious others. Based on over 450 hours of fieldwork in an LGBT Christian church located in the southeastern region of the United States, I demonstrate how a group of LGBT Christians defined non-religious others as (1) morally suspect and untrustworthy, (2) in need of salvation and guidance, and (3) poor representations of the LGBT community. Although these LGBT Christians used “non-religious” as a catchall term without ever specifying exactly who it captured, they used the first two definitions to apply to non-religious people in general regardless of sexuality while explicitly focusing on non-religious sexual minorities in their third definition. Moreover, I show how these definitions echoed mainstream religious rhetoric in America used to marginalize both sexual and religious minorities. In conclusion, I draw out two central implications of this work: (1) how religious depictions of non-religious people may reproduce societal patterns of inequality; and (2) the importance of analyzing how religious people define and interpret non-religious others.

“Some of Us Are Good, God-Fearing Folks”

In this article, I examine how a group of LGBT Christians explained Christianity. Based on more than 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern LGBT Christian church, I analyze how a group of LGBT Christians, responding to sexual and religious stigma, justified their Christian belief and practice by (1) denying abnormality, (2) appealing to emotions, and (3) claiming self-sacrifice. In conclusion, I draw out implications for understanding how members of subordinate groups justify seemingly normative behaviors, and some consequences these actions have for the reproduction of inequality.

“That’s What a Man Is Supposed to Do”

In this article, I examine how gay Christian men constructed compensatory manhood acts. Based on more than 450 hours of fieldwork in a southeastern LGBT Christian organization, I analyze how a group of gay men, responding to sexist, heterosexist, and religious stigma, as well as the acquisition of a new pastor, constructed identities as gay Christian men by (1) emphasizing paternal stewardship, (2) stressing emotional control and inherent rationality, and (3) defining intimate relationships in a Christian manner. These subordinated men, regardless of their intentions, collaboratively drew on and reproduced cultural notions that facilitate and justify the subordination of women and sexual minorities. Specifically, their compensatory manhood acts symbolically positioned them as superior to supposedly promiscuous, self-centered, and effeminate others. In conclusion, I draw out implications for understanding how groups of gay Christian men engage in compensatory manhood acts, and the consequences these actions have for the reproduction of inequality.

Appeal to Pope Benedict XVI: LGBT Christians Ask for Defense of Human Rights

CrossCurrentsVolume 61, Issue 4 p. 566-570 Appeal to Pope Benedict XVI: LGBT Christians Ask for Defense of Human Rights European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups, Search for more papers by this author European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups, Search for more papers by this author First published: 07 December 2011 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-3881.2011.00206.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume61, Issue4December 2011Pages 566-570 RelatedInformation

Appeal to Pope Benedict XVI: LGBT Christians Ask for Defense of Human Rights

Appeal to Pope Benedict XVI: LGBT Christians Ask for Defense of Human Rights

Exploring the Interplay: The Sibyls' "Gender, Sexuality and Spirituality" Workshop

Over a three-year period, beginning in 2007, the Sibyls' sponsored "Gender, Sexuality and Spirituality" Workshop was presented at five LGBT Christian conferences and weekends, and more recently at the LGBT Health Summits in 2010 and 2011. This article outlines the background to the workshop, its genesis and contents, before discussing the major themes that emerged on these occasions. The authors commend the carefully-managed group listening exercise, and the "interplay" model "identity-role-practice" devised by Michelle O'Brien, as templates for the wider listening process in the Anglican Communion in the hope that it will include gender identity and spirituality in addition to sexuality.

Balancing Acts

SUMMARY While engaged in research on the same-sex marriage debate in mainline denominations, I interviewed 23 LGBT Christians, four of whom were drag queens. While it is not possible to generalize from such a small sample, the drag queens in this study insist on maintaining their identity as Christians despite the hegemonic discourse that renders faith and LGBT identities mutually exclusive. They developed innovative approaches to reconciling their gender and sexual identities with their spirituality. Their innovations are potentially liberating not just for them personally, but for LGBT people generally because they challenge Christianity's rigid dichotomies of gender and sexuality.