Resilience of Grassroots Leaders Involved in LGBT Issues at a Catholic University

Abstract

This case study examined the sources of resilience utilized by staff and faculty grassroots leaders at a Jesuit, Catholic university addressing the LGBT campus climate. Interviews with 31 grassroots leaders uncovered how self-authorship helped participants reconcile tensions between Church teachings and LGBT concerns, self-efficacy to make a difference contributed to increased confidence, reliance on support networks countered feelings of isolation, and maintaining balance preserved psychological resources. Homophobia and heterosexism permeate college campuses (Rankin, Weber, Blumenfeld, & Frazer, 2010), so many faculty and student affairs professionals are involved in advocacy to address the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) climate (Messinger, 2011). On religiously affiliated campuses, like Catholic universities, however, administrators often perceive LGBT advocacy to be in conflict with religious teachings regarding homosexuality and gender identity (Maher, 2003; Wolff & Himes, 2010) and act to suppress such efforts (Love, 1998; McEntarfer, 2011). When faced with protracted resistance, faculty and staff can find LGBT advocacy on these campuses to be incredibly frustrating, which may escalate into psychological burnout (Howard-Hamilton, Palmer, Johnson, & Kicklighter, 1998). To counter these feelings of frustration, staff and faculty LGBT advocates rely on their sense of resilience (Kezar & Lester, 2011) or their ability to cope with and adapt to adversity (Robertson & Cooper, 2013; Seery, 2011). People develop resilience through extrinsic and intrinsic protective factors or sources of resilience that provide them the psychological resources needed to cope with adversity (Kezar & Lester, 2011; Yonezawa, Jones, & Singer, 2011). Identifying sources of resilience may seem somewhat intuitive, but resilience is a process that is both an innate psychological characteristic and an ability that can be developed (Robertson & Cooper, 2013). Very little research has explored the role of resilience in LGBT advocacy at religiously affiliated colleges and universities, let alone broader campus activism and grassroots leadership in general. The purpose of this study then is to examine the various sources of resilience on which faculty and staff at a Jesuit, Catholic university rely to sustain their commitment to LGBT advocacy. I generally use "LGBT" throughout this article to refer to gender and sexual minority communities, as this version of the abbreviation was most commonly used at my study site, although I do acknowledge this abbreviation is not fully inclusive of the range of identities along gender and sexuality spectra. I make exceptions when referring to study participants, where I use lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning (LGBQ) as the sample included no transgender participants, and in references to prior literature, I use the abbreviation employed by the authors of those studies. Literature Review The LGBT campus climate is a multidimensional construct that encompasses individual behavior toward and perc...

Our pride, our joy: An intersectional constructivist grounded theory analysis of resources that promote resilience in SGM communities

“…The resources theorized by the model correspond well with previous qualitative coping and resilience research in SGM populations and the population at-large. We identified various important social resources, consistent with many studies that have highlighted the integral role of connecting with community (both SGM and broader) and cultivating family in promoting resilience for SGM youth [18,34], SGM adults [20,21,35], and SGM older adults [24,25]. Additionally, in alignment with our findings, research by Drabble et al [2018] underscored the supportive role of animal companionship in the interpersonal resources of sexual minority women.…”

“…Indeed, social support has been theorized as an important component of SGM resilience that helps to attenuate exposure to minority stress [14,36]. Altruism in the form of activism, volunteerism, and mentorship has also arisen in many studies and theories as a contributor to resilience [18,20,32,34,35], consistent with Helping Others, which can provide individuals with a sense of purpose and the feeling of making a difference. Activism may also allow SGM individuals to conceptualize their experiences of discrimination and stigma as a result of structural causes [18], thus rebuffing narratives of adversity as a personal failing.…”

“…The salience of connection to cultural, heritage, or racial background (as in Participating with Culture and Spirituality) has been discussed in studies with gay Latino immigrants [21], and in one's racial/ethnic identity, and through pride in one's gender identity among transgender people of color [37]. Connection to spirituality, faith, or religion has been discussed as a potential coping resource for SGM individuals that can help support community members through hard times and give them a sense of a higher purpose [35,38,39].…”

“…Persevering through minority stress and the iterative process of thriving comes up many times in the literature, especially considering the definition of resilience as endurance through adversity [7,18,25,35]. A notable subset of participants relayed experiences of oppression within and among subgroups of SGM communities.…”