Eric M. Rodriguez’s research while affiliated with The Graduate Center, CUNY and other places

Although many sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) consider themselves religious or spiritual, the impact of this religiousness or spirituality (RS) on their health is poorly understood. We introduce the religious/spiritual stress and resilience model (RSSR) to provide a robust framework for understanding the variegated ways that RS influences the health of SGMs. The RSSR bridges existing theorizing on minority stress, structural stigma, and RS-health pathways to articulate the circumstances under which SGMs likely experience RS as health promoting or health damaging. The RSSR makes five key propositions: (a) Minority stress and resilience processes influence health; (b) RS influences general resilience processes; (c) RS influences minority-specific stress and resilience processes; (d) these relationships are moderated by a number of variables uniquely relevant to RS among SGMs, such as congregational stances on same-sex sexual behavior and gender expression or an individual's degree of SGM and RS identity integration; and (e) relationships between minority stress and resilience, RS, and health are bidirectional. In this manuscript, we describe the empirical basis for each of the five propositions focusing on research examining the relationship between RS and health among SGMs. We conclude by describing how the RSSR may inform future research on RS and health among SGMs.

Despite the psychosocial strain of homonegative religious attitudes, many people with minoritized sexual identities also hold religious identities and benefit from integrating their sexual minority and religious identities. However, for research and clinical practice to advance, a reliable and valid measure of sexual and religious identity integration is needed. The present study reports on the development and validation of the Sexual Minority and Religious Identity Integration (SMRII) Scale. Participants were comprised of two subsamples for whom sexual and religious identity is particularly salient (Latter-day Saints and Muslims) as well as a third subsample of the general sexual minority population—totaling 1,424 individuals (39% POC, 62% cisman, 27% ciswoman, 11% trans/non-binary/genderqueer). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the 5-item scale measures a single unidimensional construct. This scale demonstrated good internal consistency in the total sample (α = .80) as well as metric and scalar invariance along relevant demographics. The SMRII also evidenced strong convergent and discriminant validity, significantly correlating with other measures of religious and sexual minority identity typically between r = .2 and r = .5. Taken together, initial findings indicate that the SMRII is a psychometrically sound measure that is brief enough to be utilized in research and clinical settings. Public Significance Statement: This article introduces the Sexual Minority and Religious Identity Integration Scale (SMRII) as a reliable and valid assessment of the degree to which individuals integrate their sexual minority and religious identities. This five-item measure is brief enough to be utilized in both research and clinical settings.

Departing from extant deficit models, the present study qualitatively explored 50 LGBTQ+ college students' development within Greek Life from a Transformative Intersectional Psychology (TIP) approach. Amidst the heteronormative and gendernormative challenges of Greek Life, participants actively pursued an authentic self, friendship, leadership and transformative social change. Sixty-six percent of participants characterized their Greek Life experiences as positive, with 88% of participants reporting that their overall Greek Life engagement positively contributed to their college experience. Moreover, 74% of participants served in Greek Life leadership roles. Of the participants in leadership roles, 46% reported that their Greek Life experiences positively connected to their LGBTQ+ identity. Participants' dynamic Greek Life engagement required no external research prompt, illustrating LGBTQ+ emerging adults' agentive efforts to actively, collaboratively and transformatively direct their own development and create institutional change. Research, counseling and administrative recommendations on how to foster LGBTQ+ campus leadership and Greek Life inclusion are discussed.

Many Muslim men with same-sex sexualities experience tensions between their sexual/religious identities. However, few inquiries address how bisexual Muslim men grow and develop amidst socioreligious persecution. Therefore, the present study utilized a mixed-methods design and the Transformative Intersectional Psychology (TIP) framework to explore the spiritual resistance of 35 bisexual, Indonesian Muslim men. Participants completed online religious attitudes and experiences measures as well as open-ended questions regarding their religious/spiritual lives. Although 70% of participants reported that they felt unsupported by the Muslim community in the past year, 49% of participants described Islam in positive terms. Moreover, participants’ largely constructed their religious and spiritual experiences outside of LGBT + Muslim affirming organizations due to the pervasive LGBTQ + hostility in Indonesia. The present study helps build a stronger theoretical foundation for understanding both the positive and negative aspects of religiosity and spirituality in bisexual Muslims’ lives from a transformative and intersectional perspective.

The current exploratory study utilized a mixed-methods design to study 18 lesbian Muslims' mental health in relation to familial and online social support (M Age = 24, Sd = 9). Due to the threat of familial rejection, the majority of participants (n = 11) selectively disclosed their sexual identity and four participants publicly disclosed. Half of participants scored as mildly to severely depressed on the Beck Depression Inventory (M = 15, Sd = 9). Participants reporting changes in their familial relationships due to their sexual orientation scored as the most highly depressed, F (2, 15) = 4.75, p = .025. Participants' depression scores varied significantly between those that belonged to online support groups addressing religion and sexuality (n = 8, M = 8.712, SD = 6.183) and those that did not (n = 10, M = 20.250, SD = 7.772), t(16) = 3.416, p = .004. Future research would benefit from exploring how therapeutic alliances and family of choice networks can help buffer lesbian Muslims' experiences of familial rejection.

This article serves as the first in a series of six articles providing a theoretically and empirically informed approach to understanding Muslim LGBTQ lives from an intersectional positive-growth framework, transformative intersectional psychology (TIP). Within this perspective, LGBTQ Muslims' religious, gender and sexual identities are mutually interactive and situated within the dynamic systems of power, privilege and oppression. This approach recognizes that LGBTQ individuals negotiate multiple minority identities as they navigate oppression and build pathways of resilience. In the present article, we provide an introduction to TIP and this theory's relevance to the distinct experiences of LGBTQ Muslims. We then conclude with an overview of the goals of this Special Issue, The LGBTQ Muslim Experience, and introduce the subsequent articles in the series. The articles in this Special Issue address the implications of transformative intersectional psychology for LGBTQ Muslim research, training and clinical practice.

Inquiries into positive transgender development are particularly important given the high rates of gender-based victimization and limited mental health resources. Moreover, transgender Muslims may encounter multiple forms of minority stress as a religious minority, gender minority and often as immigrant and ethnic minorities as well. There are few psychological studies at present that address the religious and spiritual lives of transgender individuals. The current exploratory study therefore used a mixed-methods design to explore the religious and mental health experiences of 15 transgender Muslims. Participants completed a series of religious, mental health and identity development measures as well as open-ended questions regarding their religious and family dynamics. Fourteen of the 15 transgender Muslim participants narrated a challenging coming-out event, however the average depression scores for the sample were moderate and self-esteem scores were within the normal range. Although a larger, longitudinal sample is required to conduct a statistical analysis of the mediating factors, qualitative analysis suggested that 8 of the 15 participants used religion and spirituality as important coping tools (e.g., Allah, Quran, liberation theology). The present study’s exploratory and descriptive analyses help build a stronger theoretical foundation for understanding both the positive and negative aspects of religiosity and spirituality in transgender Muslim lives. Furthermore, this study highlights the need for more complex qualitative and quantitative analyses of gender minorities’ religious resilience and identity development experiences