Queer Women and Religious Individualism

by Melissa M. Wilcox

Melissa M. Wilcox explores the complex spiritual lives of queer women in the Los Angeles area. She takes the reader on a tour of a colorful array of religious and secular groups that serve as spiritual resources for these women―from the well-known Metropolitan Community Churches to Wiccan covens, from the Gay and Lesbian Sierrans to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Arguing that these women's stories are exemplary cases of postmodern patterns of religious identity, belief, and practice, Wilcox offers a nuanced analysis of contemporary Western spirituality and selfhood, and a detailed exploration of the history of queer religious organizing in Los Angeles. Queer Women and Religious Individualism is important reading for scholars in religious studies, sociology, women's studies, and LGBT studies.

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Melissa M. Wilcox is Professor and Holstein Family and Community Chair of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Queer Women and Religious Individualism, winner of the 2010 Book Award of the ASA’s Sociology of Religion Section.

Reviews

[ניקאָלע · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic in the field(s) of queer/trans religious studies—despite its seeming obscurity, at least in terms of Goodreads stats. As another reviewer mentioned, indeed a formative and worthwhile study that, in its structure and methods, needs repeating in view of shifting relationships between LGBTQ+ folks and religiosity in the US today.

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant, interview-based study of the religious lives of queer women in LA. The narrative is beautifully and accessibly written, with a great balance of exposition and analysis. I appreciated the grounding of the individual spiritual lives in institutional settings in many cases (also what Nancy Ammerman has since argued). The only reason for not giving it 5 stars is the tendency to talk about frequencies in a 'sample' where those mean little. Nevertheless, Wilcox is very careful to avoid generalising from the sample, it's just the style of arguing from qualitative data that I find problematic. That said, the projections/extrapolations in the conclusion chapter are plausible and convincing. This is one of the studies that one would like to see repeated, as much has happened in religion and the LGBT community in the 20 years since the fieldwork was done.