The research for my dissertation reveals a variety of findings about the BLG UM population, and these findings may help to dispel myths throughout the UMC about BLGs in general and BLG UMs in specific.
BLG UMs are a diverse population and have little in common other than gender orientation, membership in and/or affiliation with the UMC, good education, feeling disenfranchised within the UM denomination as a whole, and feeling strongly (and strongly positive) about their affiliations with their local churches. But in their differences, there are similarities.
They dislike the UM stance on homosexuality.
They are stubbornly committed to remaining United Methodists.
They are loyal to their local UMs but not necessarily loyal to the denomination.
They are active within and financially supportive of their local congregations.
They are highly educated.
They feel rejected, voiceless and unheard within the denomination.
They feel accepted, cared for, respected, and valued in their local churches.
They feel that they belong within their local churches.
They feel like outcasts within the UM denomination as a whole.
They like the UMC’s social justice focus and Wesleyan theology.
They live all across the country and in all jurisdictions.
They are partnered in same-gender relationships and in other-gender marriages.
They are in long-term relationships, and they are single.
They are dating, and they are not dating.
If they are not in a long-term partnership, they want to be in one.
They have families who love and care for them, and they have families who disown them.
They have parents and siblings, and they have no parents and siblings.
They are celibate and they are sexually active.
They have been divorced, and they have never been in long-term relationships.
They have children, and they have no children.
They attend big-city mega-churches and small country churches.
They are as racially and ethnically diverse as the UMC as a whole.
They are as ethnogenous (predominately white) as the continental UMC.
They are out-spoken activists, and they are closeted.
They are well-known in the UMC, and they are unknown and invisible.
They are biblical liberals, moderates, conservatives and literalists.
They are welcomed in their churches, and they experience discrimination and isolation in their churches.
They are life-long UMs, and they are recent members coming from other, less-welcoming denominations.
They work in all types of professions and occupations, from skilled laborers to computer and technical experts to college professors to professional athletes to non-profit executives and employees to high school teachers to UM clergy. None report working as hairdressers or interior decorators. There are only a handful of musicians.
There are many BLG UM clergy.
The ratio of clergy to lay is much higher in the research population than it is in the denomination as a whole.
Many BLG clergy are celibate for their own reasons and not because the UMC says they must be.
Some have responded to despair and have left the denomination.
Some continually question their UM membership and are often on the brink of leaving the denomination.
Many remain UMs, in spite of feelings of despair, marginalization, and discomfort
Why do they remain members of and/or loyal to the UMC?
For Dr. Stroud's analysis of similar work: Comparison with previous research
Diversity/Similiarity