Description
Abstract
Purpose: This research aims to provide an effective, comprehensive analysis to understand the themes of religiosity and spirituality among LGBTQIA+ youth in urban India. The LGBTQIA+ community faces a multitude of challenges due to societal factors concerning the treatment of non-heteronormative identities as taboo, leading to extensive discrimination and the implementation of exclusionary practices. In the face of these concerns, the community has found it hard to seek acceptance due to conservative interpretations of religion that further distance them from key communities that remain uninformed and uneducated on such considerations, despite the incidence of private practice and belief among LGBTQIA+ individuals, often dependent on spirituality and personal adherence to religion in opposition to the broader community practice.
Methodology: This report has aimed to interpret and analyse the impact of religiosity and spirituality among LGBTQIA+ youth to further discourse on the abovementioned themes through a sociological study using qualitative analysis in 2 stages, involving 67 participants and 11 participants, respectively.
Findings: The study found that there is no incidence of reduced religiosity and spirituality, no perceived conflict between the queer and religious identities, and significant differentiation in defining religiosity and spirituality.
Originality/ Value: This study is an original research. This work fills a gap in available literature by focusing on an Indian population, thereby advancing an understanding of the field.
Keywords: Queer, Religiosity, Spirituality, LGBTQIA+ youth, Scriptures, Taboo, Religious Institutions
