Background | spiritualitylgbtq

This website will focus primarily on white, gay men and white lesbians. The experiences of other individuals within the LGBTQ community may be significantly different and should be taken into account as such.

Definitions:

Religion: A formal set of shared beliefs, doctrines, practices, and rituals both private and public.

Spirituality: Making meaning of existence. Can include Animistic, Atheistic, Nontheistic and Polytheistic beliefs.

Spiritual/Religious assessment on this site is defined as a distinct section of the biopsychosocialspiritual assessment process.

Scholars have written about the relative paucity of LGBTQ content in academia (LaSala et al., 2008), as well as in primary social work journals (Sherrer and Woodford, 2013).

Gay historian John D’Emilio claimed in 2014 that little has been written about the gay experience with religion.

Several authors (i.e., Bowland et al., 2013; Halkitis et al., 2009, Hattie & Beagan, 2013; McGeorge et al., 2014) have published work on religion, spirituality, and the LGBTQ community; however, in a 2018 literature review on spiritual assessments with lesbians and gay men, nothing was found.

Nancy Boyd-Franklin's 2010 work Incorporating Religion and Spirituality into Social Work Practice with African Americans has served as a positive catalyst for the creation of this site, as it addressed the importance of religion for some members of oppressed groups.

However, Hodge & Limb's Conducting Spiritual Assessments with Native Americans, written in 2010, is the only study to undertake spiritual assessments with an underserved or marginalized group.

Many lesbians and gay men report that their sexuality was the main reason for questioning their religious beliefs, with 40% of respondents saying that they rejected God or religion, or converted to a more affirming spirituality (Sherry et al., 2010).

Some lesbians and gay men have been rejected by their faith communities for their sexuality, and by the gay community for their religious beliefs. Bias has been noted by both religious and gay communities in this regard (Ressler & Hodge, 2006).

Many clients want to discuss their spiritual beliefs as they relate to treatment, and most want the therapist to take the initiative to begin the conversation (Harris et al., 2016).

83% of Americans say they believe in God, and 77% say religion is somewhat or very important in their lives (Pew Research Center, 2015).

The Pew Research Center in 2014 reported on the religious affiliations of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals vs. heterosexual populations, with 5% of those sampled claiming to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. A further breakdown follows below.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual religious affiliations

48% Christian; 11% non-Christian; 41% unaffiliated.

Heterosexual religious affiliations

72% Christian; 6% non-Christian; 22% unaffiliated.