Queer Spiritual Space(s): An investigation into the practices of non-hegemonic queer spiritual communities using case studies.

自“9·11”以来，宗教和精神在社会中的重要性在英国和北美媒体中重新抬头。两国关于同性婚姻和民事伴侣关系立法的辩论，也提升了宗教对同性恋的态度，以及大众对反物质主义信仰的好奇心。这个项目旨在探讨一个话题：LGBTQI（女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、变性人、酷儿和双性人）在精神空间中的位置是什么？LGBTQI人群既希望确认自己的性/性别身份，也希望确认自己属于某个信仰/精神团体，他们面临着阐明自己与主流信仰的关系。LGBTQI与精神和精神空间的关系是复杂的，因为同性恋和性别“偏差”在历史上和当代都受到许多多数主义宗教背景下的惩罚性制裁。首席研究员是一位虔诚的一神论者和前福音派基督徒。项目研究员是酷儿精神网络的成员，在过去的八年里一直活跃于酷儿新异教社区。她也是作为贵格会教徒长大的。双方都致力于通过协商的过程，为酷儿宗教/精神社区和他们在更广泛的文化中的理解提供强有力的学术研究。与学术调查合作的一个重要目标是代表LGBTQI作为研究参与者的宗教/精神声音。该项目希望促进LGBTQI跨信仰的讨论，特别是围绕创造/协商酷儿精神空间的经验。它打算与参与者合作，共同创建一个跨信仰酷儿网站（QUIFSS /跨信仰酷儿精神空间），作为一个持久的资源/项目成果。该项目将分几个阶段进行。它旨在组织两场LGBTQI跨信仰的聚会，让来自不同道路和传统的酷儿精神实践者聚集在一起，讨论他们对酷儿精神空间的理解。在这些会面中，我们希望在泛信仰社区中共同思考，QUIFSS网站如何以用户为主导，并有效地作为LGBTQI跨信仰对话、网络、教育和交流的空间和资源。该项目的下一阶段将涉及与特定LGBTQI群体、网络和个人进行更深入的接触。所选择的小组是项目负责人和研究人员已经建立联系的小组。他们是贵格会教徒，一神论者，伊玛目和法提哈，以及激进的仙人。这意味着与特定的“非传统”形式的基督教和“超越基督教”，LGBT穆斯林组织，以及一种特定的新异教传统的持续接触。我们将对这些群体中的LGBTQI个体进行一对一的半结构化视频/音频访谈，抽样调查年龄、种族、LGBTQI身份、社会背景、阶级等方面的多样性，每个群体总共进行6次这样的“深度”访谈。研究将包括参加相关的会议和聚会，特别是激进的精灵庇护所和在美国举行的法提哈会议。在以行动为导向的研究（积极设计以促进社会变革的研究）的传统中，项目的意图是每个一对一的访谈都是作为双向过程进行的，其中受访者为项目的方法和建议的结果提供信息。酷儿精神空间（Queer Spiritual Space）是一个由已经参与LGBTQI历史和文化研究的大学研究人员组成的项目，他们本身就是具有不同信仰历史的精神实践者，他们寻求与LGBTQI信仰和精神团体进行协商和合作研究。由于该项目旨在尽可能提供咨询，因此可能会出现其他材料。

The significance of the religious and the spiritual in society has been resurgent in the British and North American media since 'September 11th'. Debates upon marriage and civil partnership legislation for same sex couples in both countries have also raised the profile of religious approaches to homosexuality, as has popular curiosity with anti-materialistic beliefs. This project aims to engage with the topical question: what place is there for LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex) people in spiritual space(s)? LGBTQI peoples who wish to affirm both their sexual/ gender identities and their membership of a faith/ spiritual community, are faced with articulating their relationship to the faith mainstream. LGBTQI relationships to spirituality and spiritual space are complex because homosexuality and gender 'deviance' have been both historically and contemporaneously subject to punitive sanction within many majoritarian religious contexts.The Principal Investigator is a practising Unitarian and an ex-Evangelical Christian. The Project Researcher is a member of a queer spiritual network and has been active in queer Neo-Pagan community for the past eight years. She was also raised as a Quaker. Both are committed to producing robust academic research, through a process of consultation, of benefit to queer religious/ spiritual communities and their understanding in broader culture. A significant aim, in partnership with scholarly investigation, is to represent LGBTQI religious/ spiritual voices as research participants. The project hopes to promote LGBTQI inter-faith discussion, particularly around experiences of creating/ negotiating queer spiritual space. It intends to co-create, in partnership with participants, a queer inter-faith website (QUIFSS / Queer Inter-Faith Spiritual Space) as a lasting resource/ project outcome.The project will take place in several phases. It is intended to organise two LGBTQI inter-faith encounters where queer spiritual practitioners from different paths and traditions come together to discuss their understandings of queer spiritual space. During these encounters, it is intended to think collectively, in pan-faith community, about how the QUIFSS website can become user-led and function effectively as a space and a resource for LGBTQI inter-faith dialogue, networking, education and exchange. The next phase of the project will involve a more in-depth engagement with specific LGBTQI groups, networks and individuals. The groups selected are ones with which the project leader and researcher already have established links. These are the Quakers, the Unitarians, Imaan and Al Fatiha, and the Radical Faeries. This means sustained encounters with specific 'non-traditional' forms of both Christianity and 'beyond Christianity', with LGBT Muslim organisations, and with one particular Neo-Pagan tradition. We shall conduct one-to-one semi-structured video/audio interviews with LGBTQI individuals from these groups, sampling for diversity across age, ethnicity, LGBTQI identifications, social background, class etc., in total six such 'deep' interviews from each group. Research will involve attending relevant meetings and gatherings, notably Radical Faerie Sanctuaries and an Al Fatiha conference in the USA. In the tradition of action-oriented research (research actively designed to promote social change) it is the intention of the project that each one-to-one interview takes place as a two-way process where interviewees feed into the methodology and suggested outcomes of the project. Queer Spiritual Space(s) is a project in which university researchers already involved in LGBTQI historical and cultural scholarship, themselves spiritual practitioners with diverse faith histories, seek to engage in consultative and collaborative research with LGBTQI faith and spiritual groups. Because the project is designed to be as consultative as possible, other material may emerge.