Reconfiguring Spirituality and Sexual/Gender Identity: “It's a Feeling of Connection to Something Bigger, It's Part of a Wholeness.”

Abstract

In the context of religious and spiritual communities that may marginalize those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ), we explore how 11 women reconfigured potentially conflicting spiritual and sexual/gender identities. Interviews with women in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Canada's East coast, indicated some used faith traditions to try to change themselves, but most found ways to disengage from or alter their spiritual relationships. Many losses were entailed as women rejected or were discarded by faith communities. In reconfiguring their spiritual lives, women drew from former traditions, explored new paths, and forged individual relationships to the spiritual.

Keywords:

• gender identity
• identity strategies
• LGBTQ
• religion
• sexual orientation
• spirituality

Notes

1. The G in LGBTQ refers to gay, which is typically used to speak of gay men, as compared to lesbian women. Some women, however, prefer the term “gay” to identify themselves, which was true of one or more of our participants. Thus we refer to LGBTQ women.