Abstract
Our chapter will address the current climate and narratives around how religious families negotiate the beliefs that inform their lives in particular to coming into an awareness of a family member or child who identifies as LGBTQIA+. We will discuss how these two parts of people’s lives are often spoken about in disparate ways within our culture, often making it difficult for families to see the possibilities for them to coexist. We will also speak to the very real, and often marginalized, reality that for many families, accessing their religious and spiritual teachings can actually set a foundation for acceptance, even though this is not often what gets attended to in cultural narratives. We will also highlight how we work therapeutically with these families in ways that engage in collaborative activism as well as activism through countering. Specifically, we will provide case examples that show how we align with religious beliefs to foster support and affirmation of LGBTQIA+ family members and how we make choices to counter beliefs or spiritual practices that may be harmful or hurtful to LGBTQIA+ family members.
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D’Arrigo-Patrick, J., D’Arrigo-Patrick, E., Hoff, C. (2018). Colliding Discourses: Families Negotiating Religion, Sexuality, and Identity. In: Esmiol Wilson, E., Nice, L. (eds) Socially Just Religious and Spiritual Interventions. AFTA SpringerBriefs in Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01986-0_4
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