The Search for Community

LGBTQ individuals, like all people, are members of a number of different communities including family, church, ethnic or racial group, and the LGBTQ community. Conservative religious communities  frequently exile or marginalize queer persons of faith. Social scientists have used a variety of research strategies, including interviews and auto-ethnographies, to document the struggle of LGBTQ people as they search for community and most particularly religious community. These qualitative studies allow us to explore the intimate personal and emotional side of the negative ways that religiously-based prejudice has had on queer individuals historically and the harm that religion has too often inflicted upon queer persons of faith.

 Queer folks often look to the religious community in which they were raised when first searching for a spiritual home. If these communities are conservative or fundamentalist, queer folks generally find themselves marginalized and rejected. Their core sexual identity and their most intimate relationships are characterized as sinful and worthy of eternal punishment. Queer folks who are seeking a spiritual home can either ‘stay and fight’ in their original religious communities, or look elsewhere. Many religions offer more accepting and justice seeking environments where queer individuals can find religion, acceptance of who they are as individuals, and respect and support for their non-hetero-normative relationships. Healthy lives require both a healthy spiritual dimension and a healthy sexual dimension.

Religion that is nurturing and supportive is an important aspect of an individual's life. But religion can also be a source of alienation that is destructive to human growth and at times lead to aggression and violence against queer individuals or to self-destructive behavior. Progressive religious communities around the world have an opportunity to become welcoming and nurturing communities for everyone, regardless of race, ethnic background, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, or gender expression. This type of community is a healthy religious community that highlights the best that religion can offer the human body and spirit. This is the type of community that will grow and flourish during the twenty-first century, as we become an ever more diverse global community, one that demands respect and equality for all individuals.

LGBTQ folks, like everyone else, live in community.  Our communities---ethnic, queer, religious, socioeconomic, religious—are where we play out our self-identity, where we find comfort and relaxation from the stresses and strains of everyday life, and where we make meaning and understand our place in all of creation.  Our values, our concerns, what we embrace and what we reject, all are the products of our life in community.  When queer individuals are exiled from religious communities, when we are stigmatized as sinful or depraved, we not only lose community but we lose an important environment for understanding ourselves and the meanings of our lives. 

For some Unitarian Universalist resources that can  assist queer folks in finding a welcoming and nurturing religious home, I suggest looking at the website of Interweave, the national UU LGBTQ organization.  Many congregations sponsor local chapters. The Welcoming Church Program which works to help UU congregations become supportive and safe religious homes is useful both the LGBTQ individuals as well as allies looking to open their church community to everyone. The UUA website also offers an “LGBTQ  Welcome and Equality” resource page. There is also the “LGBTQ Ministries” page which readers may find of use.