Sex and the sinner: Comparing religious and nonreligious same-sex attracted adults on internalized homonegativity and distress.

Homonegative prejudice has long been connected with poor psychological outcomes. These have often been purported to include internalized homonegativity (IH), an outcome regarded as especially detrimental given its association with a large number of adverse mental health correlates. Given the evidence that homonegative prejudice often prevails most strongly within many mainstream religious contexts, the current study examined whether religious lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals would possess higher levels of internalized homonegativity than their nonreligious, and formerly religious, LGB counterparts. To test this hypothesis, Christian, formerly Christian, and nonreligious Australian LGB respondents (N = 579), recruited through social media platforms and a diverse range of community groups, completed an online survey assessing IH; religion-sexuality distress; religious and familial homonegativity; sense of self; and outness. Ordinal logistic regressions revealed that Christian LGB respondents possessed significantly more IH than nonreligious respondents. Furthermore, perceiving greater homonegativity in one’s religious and familial environments predicted higher levels of distress and IH among Christians specifically. Despite having apostatized, former Christians still reported greater religion-sexuality distress than nonreligious individuals, suggesting that the psychological effects of homonegative religious environments are potentially enduring. Across all respon...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research