War of the worlds? : Maltese catholic LGBTI individuals narrate stories of integrating sexual and religious identities

Abstract

This research seeks to utilise the narrative research approach to discover the process by which Maltese LGBTI Catholic persons integrate their religious and sexual identities. The stories of four participants are presented in stanza form. This study produced rich and emotional narratives. The findings in this narrative clearly indicate that paths to integration are tumultuous and diverse, and that integration is not necessarily a fixed state. It also emerged that LGBTI Catholic individuals are aware and heavily impacted by the anti LGBTI narrative of the church, whilst LGBTI Catholic groups are an integral part of the journey towards integration. The ideas for future research, methodological limitations and my final reflections are presented at the end of this dissertation. Practical implications of this research, which emerged from this research, are also presented. These are as follows, a person centred approach should be utilised in working with persons experiencing conflict between their religious and sexual identity, so as to combat the shame, isolation and guilt, which is so often experienced. In order to further combat shame, caused by a generally sex negative environment, sex education that is both positive and inclusive should be implemented in schools and other educational institutions. Moreover, because as local practitioners we are not immune to this sex negative environment, we should work on becoming aware of prejudices we may have, before working with such individuals. Catholic LGBTI groups are an essential source of help in the journey towards integration and hence, as practitioners we should work alongside them. Furthermore, familial acceptance, has a key positive impact on the journey of Catholic LGBTI individuals, hence as practitioners we should also aim to support the families of such individuals.