Sexuality, Gender, and Religious Attendance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v7i2.102Keywords:
gender, identity, religion, sexual orientation, spirituality, womenAbstract
Existing research on religious organizations serving lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people has noted a dearth of women in such congregations but has offered little explanation for this phenomenon. Working from a study conducted with 29 lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women in the greater Los Angeles area, this paper demonstrates that race and ethnicity, feminism, a concern for LGBT rights, and interaction between the life-course patterns of religion and sexual identity influenced participants’ decisions about religious involvement. These results, while not generalizable, indicate the need for a nuanced understanding of both religious practice and identity in larger studies of gender, sexuality, and religious attendance.
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References
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Schnoor, R. F. 2006. “Being Gay and Jewish: Negotiating Intersecting Identities,” Sociology of Religion, 67.1, 43–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/socrel/67.1.43
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Smith, C., M. L. Denton, R. Faris and M. Regnerus. 2002. “Mapping American Adolescent Religious Participation,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41.4, 597–612. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.00148
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Wilcox, Melissa M. 2003. Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity, and Community. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Yip, A. K. T. 1997. “Attacking the Attacker: Gay Christians Talk Back,” British Journal of Sociology, 48.1, 113–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/591913
Yip, A. K. T. 2002. “The Persistence of Faith among Nonheterosexual Christians: Evidence for the Neosecularization Thesis of Religious Transformation,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 4.2, 199–212.
Yip, A. K. T. 2004a. “Embracing Allah and Sexuality? South Asian Non-Heterosexual Muslims in Britain,” in K. A. Jacobsen and P. P. Kumar, eds. South Asians in the Diaspora: Histories and Religious Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 294–310.
Yip, A. K. T. 2004b. “Negotiating Space with Family and Kin in Identity Construction: The Narratives of British Non-Heterosexual Muslims,” The Sociological Review, 52.3, 336–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2004.00483.x
Yip, A. K. T. 2005. “Queering Religious Texts: An Exploration of British Non-Heterosexual Christians’ and Muslims’ Strategy of Constructing Sexuality-Affirming Hermeneutics,” Sociology, 39.1, 47–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038505049000
Battle, J., C. J. Cohen, D. Warren, G. Fergerson and S. Audam. 2000. Say It Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud. New York: The Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Comstock, G. D. 1996. Unrepentant, Self-Affirming, Practicing: Lesbian/Bisexual/Gay People within Organized Religion. New York: Continuum.
Dillon, M. 1999. Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith, and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511752728
Floyd, F. J., and R. Bakeman. 2006. “Coming-Out across the Life Course: Implications of Age and Historical Context,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35.3, 287–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9022-x
Gorman, E. Michael. 1980. “A New Light on Zion: A Study of Three Homosexual Religious Congregations in Urban America.” PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.
Grov, C., D. S. Bimbi, J. E. Nanín and J. T. Parsons. 2006. “Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Generational Factors Associated with the Coming-Out Process among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Individuals,” Journal of Sex Research, 43.2, 115–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224490609552306
Halbertal, T. H., and I. Koren. 2006. “Between ‘Being’ and ‘Doing’: Conflict and Coherence in the Identity Formation of Gay and Lesbian Orthodox Jews,” in D. P. McAdams, R. Josselson and A. Lieblich, eds. Identity and Story: Creating Self in Narrative. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 37–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11414-002
Hervieu-Léger, Danièle. 2006. “In Search of Certainties: The Paradox of Religiosity in Societies of High Modernity,” The Hedgehog Review, 8.1/2, 59–68.
Heelas, Paul, and Linda Woodhead, with Benjamin Seel, Bronislaw Szerszynski, and Karin Tusting. 2005. The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Houtman, D., and A. Stef. 2007. “The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition: The Spread of Post-Christian Spirituality in 14 Western Countries, 1981–2000,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46.3, 305–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2007.00360.x
Hunt, M. E. 1994. “Opposites Do Not Always Attract: How and Why Lesbian Women and Gay Men Diverge Religiously,” in J. M. Clark and M. J. Stemmler, eds. Spirituality and Community: Diversity in Lesbian and Gay Experience. Las Colinas, TX: Monument Books, 147–63.
Leong, P. 2006. “Religion, Flesh, and Blood: Re-creating Religious Culture in the Context of HIV/AIDS,” Sociology of Religion, 6.3, 295–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/socrel/67.3.295
Loveland, M. T. 2003. “Religious Switching: Preference Development, Maintenance, and Change,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42.1, 147–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.00168
Mahaffy, K. A. 1996. “Cognitive Dissonance and Its Resolution: A Study of Lesbian Christians,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35.4, 392–402. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1386414
McGuire, M. B. 2008. Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. New York: Oxford University Press.
Minwalla, O., B. R. S. Rosser, J. Feldman and C. Varga. 2005. “Identity Experience among Progressive Gay Muslims in North America: A Qualitative Study within Al-Fatiha,” Culture, Health, and Sexuality, 7.2, 113–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691050412331321294
Primiano, Leonard Norman. 1993a. “‘I Would Rather be Fixated on the Lord’: Women’s Religion, Men’s Power, and the ‘Dignity’ Problem.” New York Folklore 19.1/2, 89–103.
Primiano, Leonard Norman. 1993b. “Intrinsically Catholic: Vernacular Religion and Philadelphia’s ‘Dignity’.” PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Rodriguez, E. M., and S. M. Ouellette. 2000. “Gay and Lesbian Christians: Homosexual and Religious Identity Integration in the Members and Participants of a Gay-Positive Church,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 39.3, 333–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0021-8294.00028
Roof, W. C. 1993. A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation. San Francisco: HarperCollins.
Roof, W. C. 1999. Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Roth, L. M., and C. K. Jeffrey. 2007. “Risky Business: Assessing Risk Preference Explanations for Gender Differences in Religiosity,” American Sociological Review, 72.2, 205–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000312240707200204
Savin-Williams, R. C. 1990. Gay and Lesbian Youth: Expressions of Identity. New York: Hemisphere.
Savin-Williams, R. C., and L. M. Diamond. 2000. “Sexual Identity Trajectories among Sexual-Minority Youths: Gender Comparisons,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 29.6, 607–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1002058505138
Schnoor, R. F. 2006. “Being Gay and Jewish: Negotiating Intersecting Identities,” Sociology of Religion, 67.1, 43–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/socrel/67.1.43
Sherkat, D. E. 2002. “Sexuality and Religious Commitment in the United States: An Empirical Examination,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41.2, 313–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.00119
Shokeid, M. 1995. A Gay Synagogue in New York. New York: Columbia University Press.
Shokeid, M. 2001. “‘The Women are Coming’: The Transformation of Gender Relationships in a Gay Synagogue,” Ethnos, 66.1, 5–26.
Smith, C., M. L. Denton, R. Faris and M. Regnerus. 2002. “Mapping American Adolescent Religious Participation,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41.4, 597–612. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.00148
Sointu, E., and L. Woodhead. 2008. “Spirituality, Gender, and Expressive Selfhood,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47.2, 259–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00406.x
Wallace, J. M. Jr, T. A. Forman, C. H. Caldwell and D. S. Willis. 2003. “Religion and US Secondary School Students: Current Patterns, Recent Trends, and Sociodemographic Correlates,” Youth & Society, 35.1, 98–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0044118X03254564
Wilcox, Melissa M. 2001. “Dancing on the Fence: Researching Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Christians,” in James V. Spickard, J. Shawn Landres, and Meredith B. McGuire, eds. Personal Knowledge and Beyond: Reshaping the Ethnography of Religion, New York: New York University Press, 47–62.
Wilcox, Melissa M. 2003. Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity, and Community. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Yip, A. K. T. 1997. “Attacking the Attacker: Gay Christians Talk Back,” British Journal of Sociology, 48.1, 113–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/591913
Yip, A. K. T. 2002. “The Persistence of Faith among Nonheterosexual Christians: Evidence for the Neosecularization Thesis of Religious Transformation,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 4.2, 199–212.
Yip, A. K. T. 2004a. “Embracing Allah and Sexuality? South Asian Non-Heterosexual Muslims in Britain,” in K. A. Jacobsen and P. P. Kumar, eds. South Asians in the Diaspora: Histories and Religious Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 294–310.
Yip, A. K. T. 2004b. “Negotiating Space with Family and Kin in Identity Construction: The Narratives of British Non-Heterosexual Muslims,” The Sociological Review, 52.3, 336–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2004.00483.x
Yip, A. K. T. 2005. “Queering Religious Texts: An Exploration of British Non-Heterosexual Christians’ and Muslims’ Strategy of Constructing Sexuality-Affirming Hermeneutics,” Sociology, 39.1, 47–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038505049000
Published
2013-03-22
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Section
Articles
How to Cite
Wilcox, M. (2013). Sexuality, Gender, and Religious Attendance. Fieldwork in Religion, 7(2), 102–116. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v7i2.102
