Many religious communities nowadays still have very little tolerance towards accepting LGBT persons and perpetuate oppression and discrimination against them. They are being convinced they must pray, as only prayer would lead to conversion and away from “sinful life”. I am also a part of a religious community and have witnessed many situations in which members of the community insulted and humiliated LGBT persons, trying to convince them that it is just a phase and that they should only pray, and they will be “converted”. Thus, in this research, I wanted to give voice to the persons who are often discriminated, violated, and insulted in communities that pride themselves on accepting everyone with open arms. In my thesis, I research how LGBT persons feel in religious communities, the influence of good and bad experiences in a religious community, the support offered in case of a bad experience in a religious community, the experience of revealing their sexual orientation and/or sexual identity (coming out) in a religious community, the experience of revealing their sexual orientation and/or sexual identity (coming out) in the core family, school, at the workplace, and in other communities, and last but not least, how they coordinate their sexual orientation and/or sexual identity with their religion. The theoretical part discusses the themes of sexual orientation, sexual identity, the meaning of the acronym LGBT, revealing one’s sexual orientation and/or sexual identity (coming out), homophobia and transphobia, discrimination and violence against LGBT people, LGBT people and religious communities, and advice about social work with LGBT persons that are members of a religious community. In the empirical part, I present the research’s methodology and the results that were acquired by means of a semi-structured interview. Eight LGBT persons who are or were members of a religious community participated in the research. The results show that LGBT persons in a religious community experience more negative feelings than positive ones. In a religious community, they had more bad experiences than good ones. The good experiences gave them a feeling of belonging and an awareness that homosexuality is not a sin, whereas the consequences of bad experiences were low self esteem, low confidence, and development of internalised homophobia. In the case of a bad experience, they would have wanted to have the support of their family, friends, professionals, and organisations that offer support. The experience of coming out in a religious community, as well as the experience of coming out to their core family, school, workplace, and other communities, was for some positive and for others negative. Most LGBT persons successfully coordinated their sexual orientation and/or sexual identity with their religion, however, most of them also pointed out the conflict between their sexual orientation and/or sexual identity and religion.
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