ABSTRACT
Heterosexism and homophobia have multiplicative effects for gays and lesbians of color, who are harmed by racism, classism, and sexism. How does one’s social location within these interlocking systems of inequality define one’s experience and consciousness? In this chapter, McQueeney draws on data from participant observation and interviews in two lesbian and gay affirming Protestant churches in the Southeast – one predominantly Black and the other predominantly white – to illustrate how an intersectional perspective complicates and deepens our understanding of sexual identity. To dispel the “immoral” images with which they confronted lesbian and gay members engaged in a group process of sexual identity reconstruction, they drew on the resources to present themselves as good people – people of faith – despite their homosexuality. Importantly, all gay men and lesbian women did not have the same resources at their disposal to accomplish this work to fashion themselves as “normal” and “moral” people because such resources were linked to the systems of racism, classism, and sexism that shaped their lives.
