At the intersection of church and gay: Religion, spirituality, conflict, and integration in gay, lesbian, and bisexual people of faith.
Item
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Title
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At the intersection of church and gay: Religion, spirituality, conflict, and integration in gay, lesbian, and bisexual people of faith.
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Identifier
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AAI3213142
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identifier
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3213142
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Creator
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Rodriguez, Eric M.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Suzanne Ouellette
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Date
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2006
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Personality | Psychology, Social | Religion, General
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Abstract
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While the research literature on the religious and spiritual lives of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals is rich and continually expanding, it is also quite fragmented. It consists mainly of studies with small sample sizes that focus narrowly on the experiences of specific subgroups. The current study moves away from this approach and begins to investigate a wider cross-section of GLB people of faith---a viewpoint nearly absent in current literature. This was accomplished by conducting a secondary analysis of demographic, religious, spiritual, identity, and mental health data collected by Herek and his colleagues during the course of their Northern California Health Study.;The foundation of this study consisted of three goals: (1) to improve our understanding of the religious and spiritual lives of GLBs; (2) to conduct more inclusive research by addressing religiosity and spirituality across sex, sexual orientation, and religion all within the same research study; and (3) to address some of the methodological limitations found in the current literature.;The specific aims of the current study were also threefold: (1) to explore the religious and spirituals lives of a large sample of GLBs (N=750); (2) to explore the conflict that can occur between these individuals' sexual orientation and religious/spiritual beliefs; and (3) to explore the integration that can occur between these individuals' GLB and religious/spiritual identities.;Many statistically significant and theoretically relevant findings were uncovered, including: The flight of GLB individuals from established Christian denominations while retaining a strong sense of religiosity and spirituality, gay and bisexual women experiencing less conflict than gay and bisexual men, and higher levels of conflict between GLB and religious/spiritual identities being related to ego-dystonic homosexuality, and a higher likelihood of becoming involved with a GLB religious organization. After statistically grouping the GLB participants into a series of integration clusters, resulting data analyses indicated that those GLBs struggling with their gay identity experienced more negative mental health outcomes than those who clustered as integrated, secular, low gay salience, or anti-religious/spiritual. Interestingly, the most positive mental health outcomes were uncovered not only for those secular GLBs who had removed religion and spirituality from their lives but also for those GLBs who had managed to integrate their religious and homosexual identities. The implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions are made for future research in this area.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
