“I’m Gay and I’m Catholic”: Negotiating Two Complex Identities at a Catholic University

Wedow, Robbee; Schnabel, Landon; Wedow, Lindsey K. D.; Konieczny, Mary Ellen

doi:10.1093/socrel/srx028

Cited by 31 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Because it is a marginalized identity often fraught with social costs, especially for those embedded in conservative social contexts, sexual minority identity could be a particularly strong predictor of social attitudes (Egan 2012). People from more progressive backgrounds can be more likely to affirm a sexual minority identity, and the experience of recognizing and affirming that identity could shape sexual minorities' social outlook (see Baunach and Burgess 2013;Brown-Saracino 2015;Wedow et al 2017 on affirmation of sexual minority identity).…”

Section: Argument and Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexual Orientation and Social Attitudes

Schnabel¹

2017

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Gender, race, and class strongly predict social attitudes and are at the core of social scientific theory and empirical analysis. Sexuality (i.e., sexual orientation), however, is not as central a factor by which we conceptualize and systematize society. This study examines the impact of sexual orientation, gender, race, and education across attitudinal topics covered by the General Social Survey. Sexual orientation is an important part of people's lives that, as I demonstrate, is a strong and exceptionally consistent predictor of social attitudes across issues regardless of whether it is measured with partnering behavior or self-identification. When sexual behavior and identity differ, however, identity is more influential. This pattern lends support to a marginalized identity explanation for why sexual minorities are consistently liberal. I conclude that future work should pay more attention to sexuality as a core factor in social scientific theory and empirical analysis.

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Section: Argument and Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many sexual minorities are religious and even more are spiritual, but they have frequently reinterpreted religious teachings with emphasis on love, social justice, and inclusivity(Sherkat 2002;Wedow et al 2017). …”

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confidence: 99%

Sexual Orientation and Social Attitudes

Schnabel¹

2017

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“…Despite this specificity, Rodriquez and Ouellette (2000) became a standard bearer for future research: Identity conflict became a point of departure, integration an implicit goal, and mapping outcomes a central analytical framework (e.g., Coley 2018; Dehlin et al. 2015; Pitt 2010; Wedow et al 2017 to name just a few).…”

Section: The Conflict Framementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As we were wrapping up I asked the ethnographer's most important question: “anything we have not covered?” His response: “despite all this, I sometimes think about conversion therapy… I've been telling you that I'm content with my life—and really, I am!—but this dream of being heterosexual, marrying a woman, is still there, in the back of my mind.” Had I been following the categorical schema suggested in the literature (and concluded the interview 15 minutes earlier), I may have placed Yaniv in the “ex‐Orthodox” category. His late admission might place him in Wedow et al's (2017) “ambivalent” category. I suggest, however, Yaniv's ambivalence was neither an aberration nor indicative of a distinct outcome category.…”

Section: Fluidity and Ambivalencementioning

confidence: 99%

Religious Queer People Beyond Identity Conflict: Lessons from Orthodox LGBT Jews in Israel

Avishai

2020

Scientific Study of Religion

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A key thread of research on how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons of faith navigate and make sense of gender and sexual identities and desires that defy their religious traditions’ teachings focuses on identity conflict, management, negotiation, and reconciliation. Drawing on interviews with 64 Orthodox Jewish same‐sex attracted persons in Israel, supplemented by physical and digital ethnographic data, I argue that the conflict frame is empirically imprecise and conceptually flawed. I demonstrate fluidity and ambivalence vis‐à‐vis religiosity and sexual identity and argue that ambivalence is generative: In the process of making sense of their sexual and religious selves, my respondents challenge what it means to be Orthodox and what it means to be same‐sex attracted, thereby challenging the conflict frame's categorical schema. I then make the case for a more contextualized and dynamic framework for theorizing LGBT negotiations of religious and sexual identities. I also observe that the limitations of the conflict lens are symptomatic of broader tendencies in the sociology of religion to rely on U.S. and Christian cases and a pattern of limited engagement with work in other disciplines and subdisciplines.

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“…Gender differences in religiosity are typically considered in isolation, but could be considered in the context of other group differences. With the exception of sexual minorities who have been further marginalized by religious institutions (Sherkat 2016;Wedow et al 2017), disadvantaged groups are typically more religious and more religiously orthodox than their more advantaged counterparts in Christian contexts. This pattern may be due, at least in part, to religion and spirituality providing compensatory comfort, strength, control, and validation (Hoffmann and Bartkowski 2008;Schnabel 2016bSchnabel , 2018a.…”

Section: Social Status and Group Differences In Religiositymentioning

confidence: 99%

Opiate of the Masses? Inequality, Religion, and Political Ideology in the United States

Schnabel¹

2017

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This study considers the assertion that religion is the opiate of the masses. Using a special module of the General Social Survey, I first demonstrate that religion functions as a compensatory resource for structurally-disadvantaged groups-women, racial minorities, those with lower incomes, and, to a lesser extent, sexual minorities. I then demonstrate that religionoperating as both compensatory resource and values-shaping schema-suppresses what would otherwise be larger group differences in political ideology. This study provides empirical support for the general "opiate" claim that religion is the "sigh of the oppressed creature" and suppressor of emancipatory political values. I expand and refine the theory, however, showing how religion provides (1) compensatory resources for lack of social, and not just economic, status, and (2) traditional-values-oriented schemas that, rather than just distracting people, shape their politics in accordance with the content of religious belief systems. Opiate of the Masses? 2Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. -Karl Marx (1970 [1843) Whenever a candidate or policy that advantages the few while disadvantaging the many wins an election, pundits assume people voted against their own self-interests and then wonder why. For example, after the 2016 U.S. presidential election many wondered why women did not vote more consistently for the first woman nominated by a major party. Status and positionality theories of politics excel at predicting why structurally-disadvantaged groups often support and vote for progressive candidates and policies, but these theories break down in the not infrequent cases when disadvantaged groups are not liberal. For example, as I will show, men are more supportive of a woman's right to choose abortion than are women. Are disadvantaged groups simply irrational, or is there a missing piece or overlapping identity that, when added to positionality theories of politics, explains otherwise unexpected attitudes and voting behavior?Marx, Du Bois, Weber, and other classical social theorists said religion appeals to the disenfranchised and helps them through suffering. But, according to these theorists, negatives accompany the positives, with religion legitimating subordination and/or distracting people from the root causes of their suffering. Marx's version of the "opiate" argument would predict that religion constrains revolution by suppressing political engagement. Yet, in the contemporary United States and many other countries, the most intensely religious people are often the most politically engaged, having an outsized impact on politics (Bolzendahl, Schnabel, and Sagi 2019). Although religion does not seem to make people apolitical, it is still possible that religion legitimates the status quo. Applying and synthesizing severa...

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“I’m Gay and I’m Catholic”: Negotiating Two Complex Identities at a Catholic University

Cited by 31 publications

References 24 publications

Sexual Orientation and Social Attitudes

Sexual Orientation and Social Attitudes

Religious Queer People Beyond Identity Conflict: Lessons from Orthodox LGBT Jews in Israel

Opiate of the Masses? Inequality, Religion, and Political Ideology in the United States

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