“Bring Your Straight Friends”: Anti-Gay Religious Stigma and Black and White LGB-Affirming Church Members

Abstract

This comparative study of Black and white members of LGB-affirming churches finds that race plays a major role in shaping the socio-temporal contexts in which American Protestants come to understand anti-gay religious stigma and make meaning of their affiliation to LGB-affirming churches. Through interviews with 13 Black and 14 white members of churches that actively describe themselves as affirming and inclusive of LGB people, I find that Black church members made efforts to distinguish their churches from “gay churches” and that LGB inclusion functions as a potential source of stigma for Black-affirming church members. Conversely, white respondents articulated a valuing of LGB inclusion tied to broader conceptions of inclusion and social progress. These findings suggest that Black and white Protestants encounter distinct cultural landscapes when evaluating the legitimacy and status of their religious institutions and that Black LGB-affirming church members internalize stigma related to their religious affiliations.