Queer Women and Religious Individualism

Description

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. Acknowledgments Map of Los Angeles 1. Beyond the Congregation 2. Setting the Stage: Historical Contexts 3. Queering the Spiritual Marketplace 4. Negotiating Religion: Continuity, Conversion, Innovation 5. Tiles in the Mosaic: Organizations as Resources 6. Building a Mosaic: The Sacred (and the) Self 7. Queer Women, Religion, and Postmodernity Appendix A. Biographical Summaries Appendix B. Methods and Methodological Considerations Appendix C. Interview Schedules Notes Selected Bibliography Index