Gay and Lesbian Christians: Homosexual and Religious Identity Integration in the Members and Participants of a Gay‐Positive Church

Abstract

In this study we explore individual's experiences of identity integration between their sexual orientation and religious beliefs. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, we examined identity integration in forty members and participants of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York (MCC/NY), a gay-positive church located in Mid-town Manhattan. The survey and interview data collected showed that: (1) a majority of the research participants reported that they had successfully integrated their homosexual and religious identities, (2) being integrated was related to higher role involvement at MCC/NY, being a member of the church, attending more MCC/NY worship services and activities/ministries, and attending MCC/NY for more years, (3) lesbians were less likely than gay men to report past conflict between their identities, and more likely to report being fully integrated, and (4) MCC/ NY played an important role in helping these participants achieve integration between their homosexual and religious identities.

Beyond the Dichotomy: Six Religious Views of Homosexuality

“…Individuals may espouse a view, but I resist characterizing individuals with these terms, as they are more likely than institutions to change and may draw from a mix of views. vi In the Protestant context, this is often referred to as a difference between "literalist/fundamentalist" and "historical-contextual" (or "historicalcritical") hermeneutics (Goss, 1993;Thumma, 1991;Rodriguez & Ouellette, 2000), another false dichotomy. Most people who use scripture as a spiritual guide take some parts of it at face value and believe that other parts can only be understood in light of the context from which they come.…”

At the Intersection of Church and Gay: A Review of the Psychological Research on Gay and Lesbian Christians

“…In previous work, I defined the term "conflict" as the tension that can arise between a gay or lesbian Christians' sexual orientation and their religious beliefs (Rodriguez, 1997(Rodriguez, , 2006Rodriguez & Ouellette, 2000a). In hindsight, however, the issue of conflict is not just about the clash that can occur between gay and religious identities, but also about the anxiety that arises in a gay or lesbian person experiencing such conflict.…”

“…Some of the extrinsic causes are strict adherence to established Christian tenets, usually those promoted by the conservative Christian religious right (Birken, 1997;Grant & Epp, 1998;Rodriguez & Ouellette, 2000a), acceptance of anti-gay Christian doctrine (Yip, 1997b), acceptance of other gay's and lesbian's negative outlooks and experiences (Rodriguez & Ouellette, 2000a;Shallenberger, 1996Shallenberger, , 1998, and contradiction with the religious beliefs of family members and friends (Mahaffy, 1996;Rodriguez, 1997).…”

Religion and spirituality among bisexual Black men in the USA

“…Because previous studies of religion and spirituality among non-heterosexuals have not distinguished bisexuals' experiences (see Clark et al 1989, Ritter and O'Neill 1989, Peterson 1992, Singer and Deschamps 1994, Sweasey 1997, Yip 1999, Rodriguez and Ouellette 2000, Crawford et al 2002, Lemelle 2004, bisexual men have been considered indistinct from gay men. This erroneous assumption has reified gay/lesbian dominance and bisexual absence in religious studies of non-heterosexuals (for examples, see Oswald 2001, Lease and Shulman 2003, Lease et al 2005, Ward 2005).…”