“It Doesn’t Say Except, It Just Says Love Each Other”: Mapping Spiritual Reconciliation among LGBTQ Older Adults

ABSTRACT

The concept of religion can be a complex topic for therapists to address with their clients, as the relationship between individuals and their faith is contextualized by both personal and societal beliefs and values. Those who identify with a marginalized gender identity and/or sexual orientation experienced further complexities resulting from family systems and social expectations that shape the meaning and purpose of religion, faith, and spirituality. Although previous research has addressed the complexity of religion within this demographic, few have explored how religiosity shifts over a lifetime. To address gaps in the literature, we analyzed life-story narratives from 13 White, gay, lesbian, and transgender older adults (i.e., over the age of 45). We developed a conceptual map depicting potential pathways of religious and spiritual involvement, spanning childhood to older adulthood. We conclude with clinical considerations for therapists that underscore the importance of including sociohistorical contexts that influence personal meaning regarding religion, faith, and spirituality within the therapy process with older adults who hold marginalized sexual orientations and gender identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Faith
• older adulthood
• religiosity
• minoritized sexual orientation and gender identity groups
• spiritual reconciliation

Authors’ contributions

All authors contributed in the same way to conceive the study and its design, to draft the manuscript, and to interpret the data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

This research and recruitment was approved by the University of Georgia Institutional Review Board, Proposal ID: STUDY00003560.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent for publication

We confirm that this work is original. It has not been published elsewhere and is not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Additional information

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.