Preferred Delivery
In-Person
Length of Presentation
50 minutes
Start Date
20-10-2023 10:00 AM
End Date
20-10-2023 10:50 AM
Document Type
Presentation
Abstract
In 2020, the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute reported that 47% of LGBTQ adults were moderately or highly religious. This equates to 5.3 million religious LGBTQ adults in America. We cannot ignore this population.
When making the transition into young adulthood, many religious LGBTQ youth feel they must make a choice between their spiritual well-being or their queerness. As a university community interested in the success of the rising generation, we can provide support for religious queer young adults through understanding:
1. What is happening in this transition and why,
2. The well-being needs of religious queer young adults
3. Specific actions to take, regardless of personal beliefs, to support and increase the overall well-being of queer young adults in their personal religious choices.
Description
The target audience of this presentation is educators (K-12 and university), administrators, community members, and queer students. The objectives of this presentation will be to:
1. Introduce the audience to the often-hidden LGBTQ religious community,
2. Learn the interconnected dimensions of overall well-being: physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual,
3. Gain insights on the conditions facing religious LGBTQ young adults when they are striking out on their own away from the home and community; independently beginning to assign meaning to their own experiences of being queer, their personal spirituality, their sense of belonging, and community,
4. Understand the harm of labeling queer people as an ideology,
5. Learn specific actions to take, regardless of personal beliefs, to increase the overall well-being of queer young adults.
This presentation will draw on evidence-based concepts and share meaningful personal experiences and insights Dr. Kitchen gained during the four years he was the president of the world-wide organization Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families & Friends. It will include lessons learned when he was invited to Brigham Young University in 2019 to help lead a roundtable discussion in ways the university could build better relations with the LGBTQ community.
Resources will be provided listing strategies in creating a safe space, specific queer led religious support groups across the country, suicide prevention resources, and mental health resources. An educator does not have to fix things in a queer person’s life, just be a part of a wider community support system to objectively listen, affirm, cast hope, and provide connections to others.
Many religious queer young adults are facing rejection in their spiritual home because they have come out as queer. This loss of belonging is a hidden stressor that can manifest itself in other dimensions of their well-being. An inclusive university community builds a wholeness and belonging in the life a religious LGBTQ student to overcome rejecting words and behavior.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Mormon Studies Commons, Practical Theology Commons, Social Justice Commons
Belonging in Unashamed Authenticity
In 2020, the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute reported that 47% of LGBTQ adults were moderately or highly religious. This equates to 5.3 million religious LGBTQ adults in America. We cannot ignore this population.
When making the transition into young adulthood, many religious LGBTQ youth feel they must make a choice between their spiritual well-being or their queerness. As a university community interested in the success of the rising generation, we can provide support for religious queer young adults through understanding:
1. What is happening in this transition and why,
2. The well-being needs of religious queer young adults
3. Specific actions to take, regardless of personal beliefs, to support and increase the overall well-being of queer young adults in their personal religious choices.
Speaker Information
Nathan Kitchen is President Emeritus of Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Family and Friends. Affirmation is a forty-six-year-old organization that creates worldwide communities of safety, love, and hope, supporting LGBTQIA+ individuals and their families as they define their individual spirituality and intersection with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served a full-time mission for the Church in Alabama, graduated with a B.S. in Zoology from BYU Provo, earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine from Southern Illinois University, and completed a general practice residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He is currently in private practice in Mesa, Arizona. He is the proud father of five children and three grandchildren and lives in Gilbert, Arizona with his husband Matthew Rivera.