Through participant observation and interviews conducted with gay and lesbian students, we identify and discuss four identity categories based on whether students embrace or reject religious identities and sexual minority identities: (1) integrated (embrace both identities), (2) liberated (embrace sexual identity, reject religious identity), (3) embattled (embrace religious identity, reject sexual identity), and (4) disillusioned (uncertainty about both identities).
We explore context-specific identity negotiation to determine how and why, even in a time of increasing societal acceptance of sexual minorities, boundaries between faith and sexual identity persist. This article examines the negotiation of sexual and religious identities among gay and lesbian students on a Catholic university campus.
