Plain Language Summary
Providers are often trained to see one identity at a time. But patients do not come in as single identities. They come in as whole people, carrying faith and queerness, race and gender, trauma and resilience, all at once. When a provider cannot hold that complexity, the patient learns to hide parts of themselves in order to receive care. This section focuses specifically on the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and religious or spiritual identity, one of the most overlooked combinations in clinical training. Queer people of faith are not rare. They exist in every faith tradition and many are actively advocating for change within their communities. What they often cannot find is a provider who understands that both identities are real, both matter, and neither cancels the other out. The clinical space may be the only affirming space they have access to. Providers need to treat it that way.
✓ Do
- Listen openly to what the client shares about their religious or spiritual identity instead of placing assumptions on them before they speak.
- Understand that a client may be genuinely struggling with how their queer identity and their faith identity coexist. Hold space for that tension without trying to resolve it for them.
- Identify your own personal biases around the intersection of faith and sexuality before working with this population. What you carry into the room affects what the client feels safe saying.
- Recognize that the clinical space may be the only affirming environment this client has access to outside of communities that reject part of who they are.
✕ Don't
- Don't assume that an LGBTQ+ client cannot also be deeply spiritual or religious.
- Don't assume that a client's religion or faith tradition is automatically homophobic or transphobic. Many queer people are actively creating change within their faith communities.
- Don't impose your own religious beliefs or values onto LGBTQ+ clients in any direction.
- Don't assume this client has found peace with both of their identities. Many are still in the middle of that process and need a provider who can sit with them there.
Patient Voices
"I didn't stop being religious when I came out. I just stopped being able to talk about both in the same room."
"Being queer and being a person of faith are not opposites. But finding a provider who understands that has been nearly impossible."
Why These Sources Matter
Avishai, Coley, Golriz, and Moon (2024) — How LGBTQ+ People Are Creating Change in Their Faith Communities. American Sociological Institution, 23(1), 24-29
Challenges the assumption that queerness and religious identity are incompatible. Documents how LGBTQ+ people actively engage with and advocate within faith communities, with direct implications for how providers understand and respond to clients who hold both identities.
Avishai (2020) — Religious Queer People Beyond Identity Conflict: Lessons from Orthodox LGBT Jews in Israel. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 59(1)
Examines how queer people navigate religious identity without abandoning either part of themselves. Shows that the tension between these identities is real, complex, and ongoing, and that providers must be equipped to meet clients inside that complexity rather than flattening it.