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Queer and Trans Religiosity in Sweden: Challenging Secular Assumptions

Lundell, Elin LU orcid (2025) G25 - National Gender Research Conference in Sweden
Abstract
In recent years, public discourse on LGBTQIA+ rights in Sweden has increasingly positioned religion as a primary threat to queer and trans lives. Within this discussion, religion is often portrayed as a carrier of socially conservative values on gender and sexuality, as well as an outdated and unwelcome presence in modern secular society. This portrayal reinforces the idea of secular society as a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ people and suggests that religiosity is exclusive to those who adhere to heteronormativity and cisnormativity, while overlooking the many ways in which queer and trans people actively engage with religious practices and beliefs.

This paper, based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with Jewish, Christian, and... (More)
In recent years, public discourse on LGBTQIA+ rights in Sweden has increasingly positioned religion as a primary threat to queer and trans lives. Within this discussion, religion is often portrayed as a carrier of socially conservative values on gender and sexuality, as well as an outdated and unwelcome presence in modern secular society. This portrayal reinforces the idea of secular society as a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ people and suggests that religiosity is exclusive to those who adhere to heteronormativity and cisnormativity, while overlooking the many ways in which queer and trans people actively engage with religious practices and beliefs.

This paper, based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim LGBTQIA+ people in Sweden, challenges the assumed alignment of queerness with secularism and treats the research participants as religious subjects rather than positioning them as outsiders to religion. In doing so, it critiques the tendency to overlook the heterosexism and (anti-religious) racism present in secular society when the oppression of LGBTQIA+ people is attributed primarily to religious communities. By integrating religion into an intersectional analysis of LGBTQIA+ experiences, this paper highlights the limitations of secular queer communities as spaces of belonging and examines the significance of organised religion in queer and trans lives. (Less)
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
conference name
G25 - National Gender Research Conference in Sweden
conference location
Östersund, Sweden
conference dates
2025-10-21 - 2025-10-23
project
Believing and Belonging: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in the Lives of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim LGBTQIA+ People in Sweden
Liveability at the crossroad of religion, gender and sexuality: An ethnographic study of religious and social barriers encountered by LGBTQ+ people across diverse traditions of faith
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
653846f6-acba-4907-8366-44a221801da1
date added to LUP
2026-04-16 08:50:31
date last changed
2026-04-21 11:14:43
@misc{653846f6-acba-4907-8366-44a221801da1,
  abstract     = {{In recent years, public discourse on LGBTQIA+ rights in Sweden has increasingly positioned religion as a primary threat to queer and trans lives. Within this discussion, religion is often portrayed as a carrier of socially conservative values on gender and sexuality, as well as an outdated and unwelcome presence in modern secular society. This portrayal reinforces the idea of secular society as a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ people and suggests that religiosity is exclusive to those who adhere to heteronormativity and cisnormativity, while overlooking the many ways in which queer and trans people actively engage with religious practices and beliefs.<br/><br/>This paper, based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim LGBTQIA+ people in Sweden, challenges the assumed alignment of queerness with secularism and treats the research participants as religious subjects rather than positioning them as outsiders to religion. In doing so, it critiques the tendency to overlook the heterosexism and (anti-religious) racism present in secular society when the oppression of LGBTQIA+ people is attributed primarily to religious communities. By integrating religion into an intersectional analysis of LGBTQIA+ experiences, this paper highlights the limitations of secular queer communities as spaces of belonging and examines the significance of organised religion in queer and trans lives.}},
  author       = {{Lundell, Elin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Queer and Trans Religiosity in Sweden: Challenging Secular Assumptions}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}