Synopsis
In this article, the authors discuss the challenges the LGBT faces in the spiritual society as they try to conform to the norms in the different spiritual worlds. From the authors’ point of view, the LGBT is one of the minority groups that are struggling to reconcile their religion and sexual identity. The LGBT group has their rights to religion, and some have strong faith in their religion. However, they face challenges stemming from their sexual traits that bring about isolation in the religious societies they feel should accommodate them. From the research study, therefore, the authors come up with different findings. First, the authors reveal that despite the challenges they face, some LGBT group feels the sense of reconciliation between their sexual identities and the religious identities ( Love, Bock, Jannarone & Richardson, 2005). It implies that part of the LGBT group feels that they belong to a specific religion, and they are gays or lesbians. These parts of the LGBT feel a sense of acceptance as gays and lesbians but also attach themselves to particular beliefs. The authors emphasize that such people may understand that rules and laws in such religions that discriminate against them due to their sexual identities, but they accept them. The authors further reveal that some parts of the LGBT are yet to reconcile their religious identity and their sexual orientation. The reasons the authors give in support for such findings are complex social, political, and cultural interactions that create a barrier to reconciling sexual and religious identities among the LGBT groups in the society.
The Relevance of the Research Findings in Literature
The research findings from this article are relevant to other results on this topic, although they also contradict other findings in the literature. The first finding is the definition of the term religion. The revelation that most of the participants were using the terms spirituality and religion interchangeably coincides with the results from Pietkiewicz & Kołodziejczyk-Skrzypek (2016) that states that to some people, religion and spirituality are a single entity. However, Kashubeck-West et al. (2017) contradict this matter by revealing that mots LGBT group understands the distinctive feature of religion and spirituality and defines them when selecting their religious identity.
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Furthermore, the authors document that most of their participants had already understood their sexual orientation and accepted the state of their sexual orientation. From their findings, a good number of the participants were part of the LGBT group on the campus and had already come out publicly about their sexual orientation. The results slightly contract those from Pietkiewicz & Kołodziejczyk-Skrzypek (2016) as they discuss the sexual identity framework that has four stages of sexual identity acceptance. The first stage is the awareness of the state of sexual orientation, and the second is self-labeling as a person who is specific to a particular type of sexual orientation. The third step is disclosure to the family and the community at large. The last step is self-acceptance. A look at the findings from this article, therefore, means that the participants were undergoing each of these steps. However, those who did jot reconcile their sexual identity, and religion did not fall into the four stages of this framework.
Another finding shows that most of the LGBT fail to reconcile their sexual and religious identity because of religious, political, and cultural experiences in society. Part of the LGBT group who understand their sexual and religious identities cite their belief in supreme power, according to this article ( Love et al., 2005). For instance, Felicia, which is one of the participants, claimed that God was her strength, and when facing challenges, she turns to God for strength. However, they feel the sense of religious isolation with most of the religion that should accommodate them, placing restrictions on issues that affect them, such as marriages. Furthermore, the participants feel that they need a strong sense of Self-Efficacy, Self-Awareness, and Self-Acceptance to beat the social, cultural, and political experiences they face as they interact with others in the society ( Love et al., 2005). From the findings, those who do not reconcile their religion and sexual identity are in a state of confusion because of the external experiences they face in society. The findings are relevant to a model by Joseph & Cranney (2017). The model describes three issues that create difficulties in the community for the LGBT group. The first is subjectivism, which is their perception of their sexual orientation and how people see them in the community. Interactionism is another trait, and it means the knowledge of the ci, such as peers and families, have about their sexual orientation in society. The last is sociohistorical, which are the laws and political environment that surrounds them. Together, these factors make it difficult for LGBT to survive and identify themselves with specific religions or issues in society.
According to Houghton & Tasker (2019), LGBT only needs self-belief because the laws cater to them. The author points to the laws that protect human rights inclusive of religion in areas such as employment. The rules cover any person allow them the chance to report any cases of discrimination. The LGBT, however, shy away from reporting any instances of discrimination both in religion and culture and, therefore, lack self-confidence. The authors argue against the fact that LGBTgets worse experiences while trying to reconcile their religion as the research in this article reveal.
In conclusion, the research from this article underlines the worse experiences the LGBT undergo as they strive to reconcile their sexual and religious identity in the society. Some of these findings, such as factors that make it difficult for the LGBT to identify themselves in the community, coincide with previous results in the literature. However, many contradictions underline the fact that despite such nasty experiences as the findings reveal, the LGBT also has a massive role in stamping their identity in society.
References
Houghton, M., & Tasker, F. (2019). Exploring lesbian and bisexual Catholic women’s narratives of religious and sexual identity formation and integration. Journal of homosexuality , 1-23.
Joseph, L. J., & Cranney, S. (2017). Self-esteem among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and same-sex-attracted Mormons and ex-Mormons. Mental Health, Religion & Culture , 20 (10), 1028-1041.
Kashubeck-West, S., Whiteley, A. M., Vossenkemper, T., Robinson, C., & Deitz, C. (2017). Conflicting identities: Sexual minority, transgender, and gender-nonconforming individuals navigating between religion and gender–sexual orientation identity.
Love, P., Bock, M., Jannarone, A., & Richardson, P. (2005). Identity interaction: Exploring the spiritual experiences of lesbian and gay college students. Journal of college student development , 46 (2), 193-209.
Pietkiewicz, I. J., & Kołodziejczyk-Skrzypek, M. (2016). Living in sin? How gay Catholics manage their conflicting sexual and religious identities. Archives of sexual behavior , 45 (6), 1573-1585.
