Submissions from a survey are being collected now regarding LGBT people and religious experience. Graduate student James Goodson, a Masters student at Southern University in Louisiana, will be collecting responses through Spring 2015.

"This particular survey came about because two other research projects involving LGBT folks had results we didn’t expect," he said. "Most of our research regarding religiosity comes from heterosexuals, but LGBT folks tend to have very different experiences with religion than straight people do. So when we looked at LGBT folks’ experience of religious social support and religious coping with regards to gender, they didn’t line up with what we expected. This study is attempting to shed some light on those differences."

"Personally, I am very interested in how people’s performance of gender affects their environment," he added. "I’m also interested in exploring how religion shapes people. In regards to LGBT people, these issues haven’t really been explored together. Hopefully, this study can help with that."

As with any study regarding a minority group, the inevitable question arises: why are you so interested in learning about this?  And are you LGBT?

"I’m bisexual/pansexual. The latter is more accurate than the former, but less well known," he said. "I actually just married my boyfriend of five years this September and we’re making it legal at the end of October. We’ll be going to Seattle for the honeymoon/ceremony. It annoys me to no end that the nearest place I can go to get married (North Carolina) is about 700 miles away, effectively making my marriage several hundred dollars more expensive than any heterosexual marriage."

"I am from Northwest Florida, born and raised," he said "what is sometimes locally called Lower Alabama. We have all of the heat, sunshine, gorgeous beaches, and tourists of the rest of the state with the addition of a church on every corner and plenty of country folk. This area of the state is what keeps Florida purple instead of blue. I was involved in the "No on 2" campaign back in 2008 when Florida's anti-gay marriage amendment passed and have been involved in various activist projects since then. Unfortunately, it's not an easy battle in this area."

Goodson's survey is available here.

If you have any questions, forward them to him directly: jjg21@students.uwf.edu

graphic via GLAAD