Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
DOI 10.1007/s12119-017-9417-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
Abstract Religion has been, and continues to be, a source of external hostility and
internal struggle for many sexual minorities. This has potential implications for the
observed religious origins and current religious affiliations of individuals identify-
ing as a sexual minority. Regarding origins, self-identified sexual minorities might
be less likely than heterosexuals to have come from religious traditions that have
tended to be hostile to minority sexualities, as individuals raised within those tra-
ditions might be hesitant to identify as a sexual minority even if they have same-sex
attractions. Regarding destinations, self-identified sexual minorities might be more
likely than heterosexuals to switch away from religious traditions that have tended
to be hostile to minority sexualities. We examine these expectations using nationally
representative survey data from the 2008 to 2014 General Social Surveys. The
analysis shows that sexual minorities do not significantly differ from heterosexuals
by the religious traditions in which they were raised. Sexual minorities are, how-
ever, more likely than heterosexuals to move away from Christian traditions and
towards disaffiliation or reaffiliation with ‘‘other’’ traditions that include Judaism,
Buddhism, and liberal nontraditional religions such as Unitarian Universalism. For
gay and lesbian individuals, these patterns of disaffiliation and reaffiliation can be
attributed to higher on average education and lower likelihood of being married and
having children; however, these sociodemographic factors do not explain the dis-
affiliation and reaffiliation of bisexual individuals. Further research should explore
the different religious experiences of sexual minority sub-groups.
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720 C. P. Scheitle, J. K. Wolf
Introduction
Religion, especially its traditional or conservative forms, has long been a source of
antagonism for sexual minorities both in the United States and in other nations
(Adamczyk and Pitt 2009; Hooghe et al. 2010; Henshaw 2014). This religion-based
antagonism is expressed and experienced at multiple levels, from interpersonal
hostility (Herek 1988; Schwartz and Lindley 2005) to state-level policies and laws
(Scheitle and Hahn 2011). The population of sexual minorities, however, is not
entirely distinct from the population of religious individuals. Many sexual
minorities are raised within and continue to practice a religious tradition (Thumma
1991). This means that many religious communities have expressed hostility
towards those sitting next to them during worship. It also means that sexual
minorities may have felt or endured enmity from those with whom they share an
important identity component (i.e., religion). How have sexual minorities responded
to this apparent internal and external identity conflict?
The research presented here examines patterns of religious affiliation among
sexual minorities and how these patterns compare to heterosexuals. The analysis
uses nationally representative survey data produced from the 2008 to 2014 General
Social Surveys to ask two questions. First, do the reported religious tradition
upbringings or origins of self-identified sexual minorities significantly differ from
heterosexuals? Second, net of religious upbringing and other factors that are known
to shape religious switching and disaffiliation, are sexual minorities more likely to
switch to particular religious traditions or to disaffiliate from religion entirely?
Based on past research showing that Evangelical Protestant communities have been
particularly opposed to non-heterosexuality (Moore and Ovadia 2006; Whitehead
2010), this study focuses in particular on the representation of Evangelical
Protestantism among the childhood and current religious affiliations of sexual
minorities.
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The Religious Origins and Destinations of Individuals… 721
Reeves (2011) indicate that reconciling the internal conflict between these two
opposing identities (i.e., sexual minority and religious) calls for a multi-step
process. Making peace with one’s sexual minority identity and religious identity is
not a simple accomplishment, as it typically requires one to reshape or even reject
their religious views in multiple progressions.
Sexual minorities will often internalize the homophobic messages they hear from
religious leaders and fellow congregants resulting in negative attitudes towards
themselves (Kubicek et al. 2009). Szymanski et al. (2008) examined the literature
involving internalized heterosexism/homophobia and found that it was higher
among sexual minorities who were members of religions that were nonaffirming of
lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals, as are many Evangelical Protestant
groups. It is not surprising, then, that research has suggested that the tensions
between sexual orientation and current or previous religious beliefs often result in
depression or other negative mental health effects (Jacobsen and Wright 2014).
Those who experience attraction to others of the same sex (or both sexes) while
also following a conservative religious tradition may have conflicting thoughts on
how to resolve the tension between these identities. Research that has examined
sexual minorities raised or remaining within hostile religious traditions has
generally highlighted two potential outcomes, at least as far as the religious identity
is concerned.1 The first outcome results from the individual finding a way to
accommodate his or her sexual identity within the framework of his or her existing
religious tradition, even if that tradition is hostile to that sexual identity. This
adaptation often involves a process of redefinition, negotiation, and innovation.
Thumma (1991) observed gay Evangelical Protestants and noted how such
individuals would engage in reinterpretation of scripture to emphasize some parts
(e.g., love and acceptance) and neutralize others (e.g., passages that appear to
condemn homosexuality). Pitt (2009, 2010) observed similar strategies among gay
men active in black churches.
The second option for sexual minorities experiencing a conflict between a
religious identity and a sexual identity is to resolve that conflict by abandoning one
of the identities. This study is particularly interested in the abandonment of the
original religious identity.
A number of studies have suggested that the internal and external struggle that
sexual minorities experience with non-affirming religious traditions like Evangelical
Protestantism has implications for their patterns of religious reaffiliation and
disaffiliation. For instance, Levy and Reeves (2011) found that their participants
adjusted their religious devotion by either staying with their religion while
modifying their views of it or leaving organized religion to form a more
‘‘personalized faith’’ (63). Schuck and Liddle (2001) interviewed 66 gay, lesbian,
1
Rodriguez and Ouellette (2000) note four potential outcomes: (1) rejecting the religious identity; (2)
rejecting the homosexual identity; (3) compartmentalization; (4) identity integration. We have combined
the first two possibilities (rejection of an identity) and the second two (accommodation of both identities)
into our descriptions.
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722 C. P. Scheitle, J. K. Wolf
and bisexual individuals and found that a common response in dealing with conflicts
between participants’ religious upbringings and sexual identity was to reaffiliate to a
more welcoming religious tradition or to drop out of religion altogether. Wilcox
(2002) notes that some of their interviewees never went back to church after coming
out while others switched to a more understanding one. Regarding the option to
reaffiliate to a more welcoming tradition, it is noteworthy that many of the studies
(e.g., Wilcox 2002; Rodriguez and Ouellette 2000) examining sexual minorities
who are still practicing religion have focused on individuals who have joined the
Metropolitan Community Churches, which is a religious group that was founded to
primarily serve sexual minorities.
Studies have suggested that the disaffiliation option is also a common choice
among sexual minorities. For example, while Lapinski and McKirnan (2013) found
some same-sex attracted Christians were able to integrate both their sexual and
religious identities, a second larger group also emerged that chose to leave religion
and develop their sexual identity instead. Dahl and Galliher (2009) found in a
survey of 105 young (age 18–24) sexual minority individuals that, although only
14% of their respondents were raised without a religion, 55% were currently
unaffiliated. These apostates would seem to explain the finding that a sizable
number of internet communities serving individuals who have left their religion are
focused on serving sexual minorities (Swanson 2004). It also explains a large
internet presence for those who are trying to merge their religious and sexual
identity (Miller 2016).
Most of the studies looking at the religious affiliation patterns of sexual
minorities have utilized relatively small, non-probability samples. An exception is
Sherkat’s (2002) pioneering analysis of the 1991–2000 General Social Surveys
(GSS). Sherkat found that sexual minorities are more likely to disaffiliate from
religion entirely when compared to heterosexual women but not when compared to
heterosexual men. A potential limitation of Sherkat’s findings comes from the age
of his study. The legal and social context has changed dramatically since the years
represented by Sherkat’s data. In the 1991 General Social Survey, for example, over
70% of respondents stated that homosexuality is always wrong. This response had
dropped to less than 40% in 2014. The increased public acceptance corresponds to
the legalization of same-sex marriage in many states and, in 2015, legalization in all
states due to the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Of course, none of
this is to say that all social, legal, or institutional hostility and barriers have
disappeared for sexual minorities.
Another potential limitation of Sherkat’s (2002) findings results from the
measure he used to identify sexual minorities. His analysis used a measure asking
whether the respondent had sex with individuals of the same sex in the past 5 years
to identify individuals as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. This criterion was the best he
could use since the GSS did not ask participants about their sexual identity at that
time. Research has shown, however, that identifying as a sexual minority is
theoretically and empirically distinct from having had any same-sex encounters in
the recent or distant past (National Research Council 2011; Beaulieu-Prévost and
Fortin 2015). Indeed, the internal conflict for sexual minorities with a religious
identity is not always connected to their same-sex attractions or even past same-sex
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The Religious Origins and Destinations of Individuals… 723
behavior, but instead from their adoption of an identity as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or
other sexual minority identity (Beckstead and Morrow 2004).
In a more recent study, Herek et al. (2010) examined the current religious
affiliations within a national probability sample of individuals identifying as a
sexual minority. They found that 24.2% of their sexual minority participants
identified as ‘‘atheist, agnostic, or none.’’ This is only slightly higher than the
percentage of all US adults who were religiously unaffiliated at that time.2 Their
data also showed that 2.6% of their sexual minorities identified as Buddhist while
3.1% identified as Wiccan or Pagan. Both of these would be higher than what is
found among a general US adult sample. However, their survey and analysis did not
examine the religious origins or upbringings of their sexual minority participants,
nor did it examine whether their current religious affiliation patterns was a function
of their sexual identity or other associated characteristics, such as age or education.
Current Study
The research presented here builds upon this past work in several ways. First, this
study examines how the religious upbringing of individuals identifying as sexual
minorities compares to heterosexuals. On the one hand, one might assume that the
religious upbringing of sexual minorities would not differ from heterosexuals,
particularly if taking into consideration the idea that people are born with their
sexual orientation. On the other hand, it is possible that individuals that were raised
in religious traditions that are more hostile to sexual minorities would be more
hesitant to identify as a sexual minority even if he or she were to have same-sex
attractions. Adopting such labels, from the perspective of such an individual’s
religious tradition, would constitute a rejection of his or her religious identity and
community. In interviews with same-sex attracted Mormons, Beckstead and
Morrow (2004) found that many of these individuals were resistant to adopting
labels like lesbian, gay, or homosexual. Instead, these individuals would identify as
heterosexual while also acknowledging ‘‘a homosexual problem’’ or ‘‘same-sex
attractions’’ (657). The consequence of such a dynamic for survey data on self-
identified sexual minorities’ religious upbringings would be the underrepresentation
of religious traditions that have been more hostile to sexual minorities. The current
study focuses in particular on Evangelical Protestantism. Evangelicals represent a
substantial portion of the US population, and this tradition has been shown to have
higher levels of hostility towards sexual minorities (Finlay and Walther 2003;
Moore and Ovadia 2006) relative to Mainline Protestants and Catholics. In part, this
animosity is because Evangelical Protestants have been shown to be more likely
than other groups to believe that sexual minorities are making a choice rather than
following a biological force (Haider-Markel and Joslyn 2008; Whitehead 2010).
Second, this study examines whether self-identified sexual minorities are more
likely to have reaffiliated away from more traditional or conservative religious
traditions or more likely to have disaffiliated from religion entirely. These findings
2
The 2010 General Social Survey, for example, found that 18.3% of US adults were religiously
unaffiliated.
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724 C. P. Scheitle, J. K. Wolf
have been suggested by some of the research reviewed above, but those previous
studies are also limited by their measures, age, and/or sample. Even if the current
study’s findings confirm the patterns of reaffiliation and disaffiliation seen in
previous studies, the current analysis goes further by examining whether those
patterns are a unique function of identifying as a sexual minority or whether the
patterns are connected to other factors known to cause religious reaffiilation and
disaffiilation, such as educational attainment, residential mobility, or family
formation.
The study’s hypotheses can be summarized as:
H1: Evangelical Protestantism will be underrepresented in self-identified sexual
minorities’ religious upbringings.
H2: Self-identified sexual minorities will be more likely than heterosexuals to
have moved away from Evangelical Protestantism and towards more accepting
religious traditions or towards religious disaffiliation, net of other social and
demographic factors.
Data
This study consists of an analysis of the 2008–2014 General Social Surveys (Smith
et al. 2015). Begun in 1972, the GSS is a repeated cross-sectional survey of U.S.
adults over age 18 conducted annually or biennially. The instrument consists of
consistent core questions and questions that rotate onto the survey for particular
years.
3
Prior to 2008 the GSS had asked about the sex of participants’ past and current sexual partners. Before
the inclusion of the sexual identity question, some research (e.g., Sherkat 2002) used these sex partner
questions to identify sexual minorities. However, comparing the identity question with the sex partner
question shows that they do not perfectly overlap. For instance, 31% of individuals who report a same-sex
sex partner in the last five years identify as heterosexual in the 2008–2014 GSS data.
4
Respondents could also offer the response of ‘‘don’t know’’ or refuse to answer. These cases (don’t
know n = 25, refused n = 113) are excluded from the analysis.
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The Religious Origins and Destinations of Individuals… 725
While this study is focused on how identifying as a sexual minority shapes patterns
of religious affiliation, reaffiliation, and disaffiliation, past research has shown that
there are several other factors that are important to consider as contributors to these
phenomena that could also be correlated with sexual identity. For example, family
formation events such as marriage, divorce, and childbearing have been shown to
influence the likelihood of switching religious traditions (Roof 1989; Hadaway and
Marler 1993; Musick and Wilson 1995; Smith and Sikkink 2003). To account for
5
The terms evangelical and mainline generally correspond to terms like ‘‘conservative’’ and ‘‘moderate-
liberal,’’ respectively.
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726 C. P. Scheitle, J. K. Wolf
6
The divorced and separated categories are distinct in the original survey question, but there were not
enough cases in the separated category in the multivariate analyses to keep it as a distinct category.
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The Religious Origins and Destinations of Individuals… 727
Sexual identity
Heterosexual or straight 6965 96.61 – –
Gay, lesbian, or homosexual 127 1.59 – –
Bisexual 153 1.80 – –
Religious tradition at 16
Evangelical Protestant 1507 19.90 – –
Mainline Protestant 1204 16.06 – –
Black Protestant 651 8.49 – –
Protestant, don’t know 404 5.64 – –
Catholic 2393 34.91 – –
Other faith 478 6.65 – –
Unaffiliated 608 8.34 – –
Current religious tradition
Evangelical Protestant 1331 17.93 – –
Mainline Protestant 988 12.93 – –
Black Protestant 525 6.77 – –
Protestant, don’t know 703 9.55 – –
Catholic 1705 25.38 – –
Other faith 547 7.56 – –
Unaffiliated 1446 19.89 – –
Marital status
Currently married 3343 53.45 – –
Widowed 539 4.91 – –
Divorced/separated 1364 14.53 – –
Never married 1999 27.11 – –
Number of children – – 1.83 .02
Geographic mobility since age 16
Same state, same city 2785 38.73 – –
Same state, different city 1825 24.75 – –
Different state 2635 36.52 – –
Highest educational degree
Less than high school 895 12.35 – –
High school 3641 51.03 – –
Junior college 549 7.70 – –
Bachelor’s 1364 18.40 – –
Graduate 796 10.52 – –
Age – – 45.91 .22
Sex
Male 3275 46.30 – –
Female 3970 53.70 – –
Race
White 5548 75.97 – –
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728 C. P. Scheitle, J. K. Wolf
Table 1 continued
bisexual. The mean age of the sample is 45.91. In terms of race, the sample is
75.97% white, 13.54% black, and 10.49% other race. Women represent 53.70% of
the sample. As would be expected for a probability sample of US adults, the
demographics of the GSS sample closely mirror Census data on US adults. For
instance, according to the Current Population Surveys during the time being
observed here, the mean age of US adults 44.78, the racial distribution was 79.77%
white, 12.27% black, and 7.96% other race, and the sex distribution was 51.67%
female and 48.33% male (Census Bureau 2016).
Analysis
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The Religious Origins and Destinations of Individuals… 729
123
Table 3 Changes in religious tradition from childhood to now between sexual minorities and heterosexuals
730
123
Protestant Protestant Protestant don’t know
have been shown to shape reaffiliation and disaffiliation, which themselves are
distributed unevenly across sexual identity groups.
Table 3 allows us to more directly examine movement between childhood and
current religious affiliation. This table shows the current religious tradition of the
respondent by the religious tradition they were raised in. The top half of the
table shows the results for self-identified sexual minorities, while the bottom half of
the table shows the results for heterosexuals. The diagonal cells indicate those
respondents that remain in the tradition in which they were raised. This might be
called the stability or retention rate for each religious tradition.
Generally, we see that the retention rates are lower for sexual minorities than for
heterosexuals across the religious traditions. This finding is especially true for
sexual minorities who were raised in white Protestant traditions. For instance,
63.57% of heterosexuals who are raised as an Evangelical Protestant remain an
Evangelical Protestant in adulthood. This retention rate compares to 34.02% of
sexual minorities who were raised as an Evangelical Protestant. Similarly, 58.29%
of heterosexuals who are raised Mainline Protestant remained Mainline Protestant in
adulthood compared to 37.29% of sexual minorities raised in that tradition.
If we look at the bottom row of the sexual minorities results, we see that 28.10%
of individuals raised Evangelical Protestant and 37.11% of those raised Mainline
Protestant are now religiously unaffiliated. These rates are about twice the rates of
disaffiliation of heterosexuals from these traditions, but these patterns are not as
large or dramatic when looking at the other religious traditions. The results suggest
that sexual minorities raised in white Protestant traditions are more prone to
experience identity conflicts and/or more likely to resolve that conflict by
abandoning their religious identity. Interesting, this does not seem to be the case
with sexual minorities raised within the Black Protestant tradition. It is possible that
the importance of a religious identity for individuals raised in this tradition makes it
more costly to move away from it. Indeed, some have called the Black Church a
‘‘semi-involuntary institution,’’ at least in some regions of the United States (Ellison
and Sherkat 1995; Sherkat and Cunningham 1998).
To examine these reaffiliation and disaffiliation patterns in more detail, Table 4
presents a multinomial logistic regression analysis predicting current religious
tradition by age 16 religious tradition, sexual identity, and the other measures
identified earlier. The Evangelical Protestant tradition serves as the base outcome.
The coefficients, then, represent the effect of a predictor on the likelihood of
identifying with a particular tradition relative to the Evangelical Protestant tradition.
Model 1 includes only the sexual identity indicators. The results show that gay or
lesbian and bisexual participants are significantly more likely (p \ .05) than
heterosexual participants to identify with an ‘‘other’’ religious tradition and
significantly more likely than heterosexual participants to identify as religiously
unaffiliated. These findings mirror what was seen previously in Table 2.
Model 2 includes not only the sexual identity indicators but also the indicators
representing participants’ religious origins. That is, the analysis is showing the
likelihood of currently being in a religious tradition net of the tradition that a
participant was raised in. On the whole, the results do not change dramatically. This
is not surprising given that there were not large differences in age 16 religious
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Table 4 Multinomial logistic regression predicting current religious tradition
732
123
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Sexual identity
Heterosexual or straight (ref.) – – – – – – – – –
Gay, lesbian, or homosexual .63 .60 .20 .93 .85 .48 .94 .94 .73
Bisexual .51 .68 .94 .71 1.12 1.01 .64 .84 .94
Religious tradition at 16
Evangelical Protestant (ref.) – – – – – – – – –
Mainline Protestant – 3.90** 3.76** – -1.34 -1.28 – 1.12** 1.04**
Black Protestant – .88* 1.18* – 7.17** 4.88** – 2.04** 2.02**
Protestant, don’t know – 1.20** 1.30** – 3.33** 2.41** – 3.27** 3.24**
Catholic – 1.77** 1.86** – 2.21** 2.12** – 1.62** 1.62**
Other faith – 1.97** 1.95** – 2.30* 2.09 – 2.51** 2.39**
Unaffiliated – 1.39** 1.54** – 2.37** 2.27** – 1.39** 1.42**
Marital status
Currently married (ref.) – – – – – – – – –
Widowed – – .02 – – .31 – – -.22
Divorced/separated – – -.01 – – .49 – – -.08
Never married – – .15 – – .52 – – -.20
Number of children – – -.07 – – -.004 – – -.04
Geographic mobility since Age 16
Same city, same city (ref.) – – – – – – – – –
Same state, different city – – -.03 – – .44 – – .08
Different state – – .04 – – .12 – – .13
C. P. Scheitle, J. K. Wolf
Table 4 continued
Sexual identity
Heterosexual or straight (ref.) – – – – – – – – –
Gay, lesbian, or homosexual .67 .53 .16 1.25** 1.65** 1.16 1.09** 1.04* .16
Bisexual .38 .87 .96 1.65** 2.28** 2.43** 1.37** 1.76** 1.69**
Religious tradition at 16
Evangelical Protestant (ref.) – – – – – – – – –
Mainline Protestant – 2.45** 2.40** – 1.99** 1.88** – 2.36** 2.32**
Black Protestant – 2.08** 2.47** – 2.71** 3.03** – 2.39** 2.36**
Protestant, don’t know – 1.09* 1.10* – 1.90** 1.88** – 2.29** 2.06**
Catholic – 5.81** 5.82** – 2.69** 2.62** – 2.83** 2.76**
733
123
Table 4 continued
734
123
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
traditions across the sexual identity groups, as seen in Table 2. Gay or lesbian and
bisexual participants still show a significantly greater likelihood of identifying with
an ‘‘other’’ faith or as religiously unaffiliated compared to heterosexual participants.
Interestingly, sexual minorities are not significantly more likely than heterosexuals
to move from Evangelical Protestantism to one of the other Christian traditions,
such as Mainline Protestantism. This might have been expected given that some
Mainline Protestant denominations tend to be more welcoming of sexual minorities.
If we look back at Table 3, however, we see that the movement of sexual minorities
from Evangelical Protestantism to the other Christian traditions is comparable with
the movement of heterosexuals. It is only with the ‘‘other’’ and the unaffiliated
category where we see larger differences; so, these findings were already suggested
by that table. It is possible that Evangelical Protestantism’s hostility towards non-
heterosexuality negatively influences sexual minorities’ perceptions of the entire
category of Protestantism (or even Christianity), so when considering a new
religious group these individuals do not see any Protestant or Christian group as an
attractive option even if some of them might be more welcoming.
Model 3 includes all of the additional factors described earlier. In line with past
research, the results of this model show that having children is associated with a
reduced likelihood of becoming religiously unaffiliated. The age and female
measures are also negatively associated with becoming religiously unaffiliated.
Compared to participants who are currently married, divorced or separated and
never married participants are significantly more likely to have become religiously
unaffiliated. Education is positively associated with moving to any of the religious
traditions relative to Evangelical Protestantism.
Turning to the sexual identity findings, Model 3 finds that the previously
significant effects for gay or lesbian participants in switching to ‘‘other’’ religions or
disaffiliating become non-significant once accounting for factors like childbearing,
marriage, and educational attainment. Looking at those other factors, we do find that
gay or lesbian respondents significantly differ on these measures. For instance,
43.25% of gay or lesbian participants reported having a bachelor’s degree or more
compared to 32.60% of bisexual and 28.26% of heterosexual participants. Just over
77% of gay or lesbian participants reported being never married compared to
52.39% of bisexuals and 25.82% of heterosexuals. Similarly, 82.86% of gay or
lesbian participants report having zero children, compared to 45.21% of bisexuals
and 27.09% of heterosexuals. Note that the social and demographic differences
between bisexuals and heterosexuals are smaller relative to the differences between
gays or lesbians and heterosexuals. These smaller differences are likely why Model
3 does not fully explain away the findings for bisexuals. Even after accounting for
differences in other social factors, bisexuals are still significantly (p \ .05) more
likely than heterosexuals to affiliate with an ‘‘other’’ religious tradition and
significantly more likely (p \ .05) than heterosexuals to be religiously unaffiliated.
The ‘‘other’’ religious tradition is obviously quite a broad and non-descriptive
category, but one that is necessary given the small number of participants belonging
to the religious groups included in this category. Although it is not possible to
include more specific indicators for these groups in the multivariate analysis,
Table 5 shows the distribution of specific religious affiliations for the ‘‘other’’
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736 C. P. Scheitle, J. K. Wolf
Conservative traditional
Mormon 86 1.23 16.83 – – – 1 0.65 4.17
Jehovah’s 54 0.78 10.57 – – – 1 0.65 4.17
witness
True light 1 0.01 0.20 – – – – – –
church of
christ
Christian 4 0.06 0.78 – – – – – –
science
Liberal nontraditional
Religious 2 0.03 0.39 1 0.79 8.33 – – –
science
Mind science 1 0.01 0.20 – – – – – –
Spiritualist 5 0.07 0.98 – – – 1 0.65 4.17
Unitarian, 21 0.30 4.11 – – – 1 0.65 4.17
universalist
Unity 2 0.03 0.39 – – – – – –
Other non-christian traditions
Jewish 116 1.67 22.70 4 3.15 33.33 7 4.58 29.17
Muslim 31 0.45 6.07 1 0.79 8.33 1 0.65 4.17
Hindu 28 0.40 5.48 – – 2 1.31 8.33
Buddhist 52 0.75 10.18 3 2.36 25.00 2 1.31 8.33
Other Eastern 6 0.09 1.17 – – – 1 0.65 4.17
Native 8 0.11 1.57 – – – – – –
American
Orthodox 28 0.40 5.48 – – – – – –
Other-other 66 0.95 12.92 3 2.36 25.00 7 4.58 29.17
N (in ‘‘other’’ 511 100 12 100 24 100
tradition)
N (overall) 6965 100 127 100 153 100
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The Religious Origins and Destinations of Individuals… 737
Discussion
A number of studies have shown that sexual minorities who were raised in or remain
in religious traditions experience feelings of dissonance and conflict between their
religious identity and their sexual identity. This struggle might be especially true for
sexual minorities in more conservative religious traditions. Such traditions have
been and remain especially hostile to non-heterosexuality. These traditions,
however, also tend to create stronger religious identities and more closed social
networks to reinforce those identities. This evidence led us to hypothesize that, for
sexual minorities raised in conservative religious traditions, their religious identity
would take precedence over their sexual identity. Empirically, we expected this
dynamic to produce an underrepresentation of those more conservative religious
traditions among the childhood traditions of currently self-identified sexual
minorities. This hypothesis, however, was not supported. The religious traditions
that self-identified sexual minorities were raised in did not significantly differ from
heterosexuals. This result would seem to suggest that, while the feelings of
dissonance and identity conflict might be stronger among sexual minorities in
conservative religious traditions, those feelings do not ultimately lead to a higher
likelihood of rejecting an identity as a sexual minority.
Our findings do provide more support for the second hypothesis, which stated
that self-identified sexual minorities will be more likely than heterosexuals to have
reaffiliated to more welcoming religious traditions or to disaffiliate from religion
entirely. As we saw in Table 5, net of their religious origins and other social and
demographic characteristics, bisexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to
currently affiliate with ‘‘other’’ religious traditions and are more likely to be
religiously unaffiliated. At first, the analysis suggested a similar pattern for gay and
lesbian individuals, but this was explained away by this group’s higher educational
attainment and lower rates of family formation. The lack of a direct effect for
identifying as gay or lesbian on religious disaffiliation might be surprising to some,
especially given that there is a direct effect for identifying as bisexual on
disaffiliation. Some research, though, has suggested that the experiences of
bisexuals in regards to religion and religious communities are different from gays
and lesbians. In interviews with bisexual men regarding their religion, Jeffries et al.
(2008: 468) found that some respondents reported feeling like bisexuality received
even more hostility than homosexuality from their religious communities. As one
respondent told them, ‘‘My sexuality is worse than being gay, because at least you
know what you’re dealing with. At least you know what that person wants. But
someone who’s bisexual, you don’t know.’’
In addition to further exploring the differences among sub-groups of sexual
minorities, future research could move beyond changes in religious affiliation and
examine how changes in religious beliefs and behaviors between childhood and
adulthood differ between sexual minorities and heterosexuals. For instance, are
sexual minorities more likely to see a decline in religious service attendance or
belief in God from childhood to adulthood when compared to heterosexuals? Data is
more limited in this area, however, as it tends to be less common for surveys to
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738 C. P. Scheitle, J. K. Wolf
include questions about childhood religious beliefs or behaviors than it is for them
to include questions about childhood religious affiliation. The General Social
Survey, for instance, has only sporadically asked about childhood religious service
attendance. The most recent inclusion of such a question occurred in 2008. Such
questions might also be less reliable, as it might be more difficult to remember with
accuracy such beliefs and behaviors than it is to recall one’s childhood religious
affiliation. Still, given the relatively recent trend to include measures of sexual
identity on national sample surveys, there will be many more opportunities to
expand upon the research presented here.
Our findings indicate that regardless of religious upbringing, sexual minorities
are still likely to adopt their sexual identity. However, we could not examine the
level of internal conflict this involved or the process of coming to accept this
conflicting identity. It is possible that, although they eventually adapted a sexual
minority identity, it took great effort to do so. The results showing higher religious
reaffiliation and disaffiliation among sexual minorities, particularly for bisexuals
whose identity is directly attributed to such changes, suggest this may be the case as
they negotiate incongruent identities. Overall, these outcomes support the idea that
being a member of the sexual minority community and a religious congregation are
not mutually exclusive; however, sexual minorities are more likely to adjust their
religious identities to fit their sexual identity.
Funding The authors did not receive funding to conduct this research.
Conflict of interest Author Scheitle declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Wolf declares that
she has no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval The data used in this research come from the General Social Survey (GSS), which is
publicly available at gss.norc.org. Informed consent is obtained from all GSS participants. This research
is in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and
with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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