South African LGBTQ Lives at the Intersection of Religious Intolerance

Background and Purpose: South Africa’s Constitution contains some of the most progressive language protecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) community, yet sexual and gender non-conformity remain highly stigmatized because of cultural biases and religious intolerance. This political and religious paradox unfortunately fuels harrowing day-to-day realities for the LGBTQ population due to systematic efforts by mainline religious denominations to deny sexual and gender non-conformity equal rights. Due to this enormous strain, individuals who identify as both LGBTQ and religious develop strategies to suppress identity formation and psychosocial development. Given the political and religious dichotomies in post-apartheid South Africa, the purpose of this study was to explore the following questions: (1) what are the ways LGBTQ-identifying individuals integrate their sexual and religious identities? and (2) how do their social contexts, including current Constitutional protections, mediate this integration?

Methods: In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 self-identified LGBTQ adults (ages 27-73, mean age of 42), living in Cape Town, South Africa. Approximately 64% of participants identified as White, 20% as Black, and 16% as Coloured. Additionally, 60% of participants identified as gay, 20% as lesbian, 12% as bisexual, and 8% as transgender. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants for this study. Recruitment flyers were posted at the Triangle Project—one of South Africa’s largest human rights organizations—as well as at Good Hope Metropolitan Community Church, a theologically progressive spiritual community in Cape Town. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Anchored in the constructivist grounded theory approach, transcripts were analyzed using a multi-stage coding process. Selective codes helped elucidate a theoretical process that also answered the research questions.

Results: Congruent with Rodriguez and Ouellette’s (2000) proposal that identity conflict can be alleviated when LGBTQ individuals integrate their religious identity with their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, data suggested a similar phenomenon. Similar to Meyer’s (2015) interpretation, individuals were only able to fully integrate both religious and sexual identities with the help of community resilience. Interviewees described their experiences in contentious communities as deeply wounding, but also found that interpersonal relationships in supportive communities were integral for integration. Data also supported minority stress and intersectionality theoretical frameworks, especially within the context of South African Constitutional protections.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings underscore the importance of taking an intersectional approach to understanding minority stress, identity integration, and resilience amongst this sample of South African LGBTQ participants. Further, findings emphasize the importance of considering how different intersectional identities shape experiences with stigma, exclusion, oppression, and marginalization. While connections to religious groups may have inflicted individual wounding, connections to supportive and affirming religious institutions may also promote identity integration.