Conflict between religious/spiritual and LGB identities in Portugal: How is it related to coming out experiences, LGB identity dimensions and well-being?

Abstract

Even though Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) individuals are usually less religious than the general population, religion and/or spirituality are still a part of many LGB people’s lives. This article focused on investigating the relation between the conflict between religious/spiritual and LGB identities and subjective well-being, dimensions of LGB identity and outness, in a Portuguese sample. The participants were 126 LGB people, with 80 of them being female, from a mostly Catholic context in Southern Europe—Portugal. Conflict between religious and LGB identities was found to be significantly and negatively correlated with outness and positive affect; and positively correlated with negative affect and some LGB identity dimensions, Internalized Homonegativity, Difficult Process (DP), Acceptance Concerns (AC), and Concealment Motivation (CM). People who felt conflict between their religious/spiritual and LGB identities were found to have higher scores on DP, AC, CM, and Identity Centrality than those who did not experience it. Implications are discussed in terms of the diversity of strategies LGB people use to reconcile their dual identities.