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Identity Interaction: Exploring the Spiritual Experiences of Lesbian and Gay College Students
- Journal of College Student Development
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 46, Number 2, March/April 2005
- pp. 193-209
- 10.1353/csd.2005.0019
- Article
- Additional Information
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Researchers explored the experiences of 7 lesbian and 5 gay male college students in the area of spirituality. Participants shared the challenges they faced, how they dealt with those experiences and challenges, and how their spiritual identity development related to their sexual orientation. Findings include the categories of reconciliation, nonreconciliation, and undeveloped spirituality, as well as issues of awareness, acceptance, and patterns and relationships related to sexual orientation and spirituality. Five of the participants had reconciled their spiritual and sexual identity, a few were actively struggling with these two aspects of their identity, and others had not yet dealt with this issue and kept the two aspects of their identity separate.