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    Exploring lesbian and bisexual Catholic women’s narratives of religious and sexual identity formation and integration

    Houghton, Marie and Tasker, Fiona (2019) Exploring lesbian and bisexual Catholic women’s narratives of religious and sexual identity formation and integration. Journal of Homosexuality 43 (5), pp. 548-575. ISSN 0091-8369.

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    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.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis, available online at the link above.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): sexual identity, women, Catholic, religion, narrative analysis, thematic analysis
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Children, Families and Social Issues, Institute for the Study of (Closed)
    Depositing User: Fiona Tasker
    Date Deposited: 30 Apr 2019 11:46
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:51
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27305

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