Reconciling homosexuality and Christianity: A qualitative study on lived experiences
Primary Supervisor: Dr Brahm Marjadi (opens in a new window)
Research on gender and sexual diversity has identified the need for understanding the unique health, social and spiritual needs of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual or aromantic (LGBTQIA). For religious LGBTQIA people, their sexual identity and religiosity are two integral parts of their identity. Yet, acceptance of sexuality and gender diversity varies across religions and even between different groups within the same religion. LGBTQIA people are often caught in an incompatibility between their sexuality and religiosity which could be deleterious to mental, social, spiritual and physical health particularly when one feels pressured to choose only one of these two parts of their identity.
While the negative impacts of the incompatibility between sexuality and religiosity have been quite well studied, much less is known about how some religious LGBTQIA people have been able to reconcile these conflicting aspects of their lives. Anecdotal evidence from personal communications and a few non-research publications have indicated various ways to maintain one's sexuality and religiosity. A study on these ‘success stories’ may generate research evidence to shift the prevailing discourses about sexuality vis-à-vis religiosity, from focusing on the clash and seeing the resulting ill-health from a deficit perspective, to focusing on the intersectionality with a strength-based perspective.
This project will focus on the intersection of homosexuality (being gay or lesbian) and Christianity. The project will use a qualitative approach with methods such as, but not limited to, life history and photo-voice to capture participants’ journey to reconciling their sexuality and religiosity. The study is expected to identify both the wide variety as well as the common threads of participants' lived experiences.
Prior experience in conducting qualitative research interviews and data analysis is a prerequisite, although not specifically life history and/or photo-voice research. The candidate can be of any gender, sexuality and religious/spiritual background.