ABSTRACT
Social scientific inquiry into the roles of religion in the LGBTQ communities began in the early 1970s, when two sociologists with anti-cult leanings investigated the San Francisco congregation of the recently founded Metropolitan Community Church. There is immense difficulty in obtaining probability samples of LGBTQ-identified persons, in part because people are often reluctant to name a non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity to a stranger over the telephone, or even face-to-face. The LGBTQ people frequently practice what they call their "spirituality" outside of the traditional religions. The insider/outsider divide can also be tricky with respect to religion. In addition, the increasing ubiquity of the makes possible advertising over e-mail and on social networking sites. Researchers new to the field must consider in some depth how best to design their study so as to fully capture the nuances of religion, spirituality, and sexual/ gender identity.
