Some schools, like Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University, reversed previously held rulings that faculty and students could not engage in same-sex relationships. Other schools, such as Cedarville University, a Baptist university in Ohio, stood by their decision to prohibit faculty and students not only from engaging in same-sex relationships but also from advocating for LGBTQ issues.
A new study published in Research in Higher Education underscores the fact that exploring one’s sexual and religious identity is not a mutually exclusive exercise. Nor is the intersection between religious identity and sexual identity limited solely to religious colleges and universities. The study, which looked at 52 colleges and universities in the U.S., found that students had the chance to encounter religious diversity and reflect on their religious identity at a full spectrum of institutional types.
The study’s findings suggest that LGBTQ students may be more inclined than their heterosexual peers to reflect upon their worldview after encountering worldviews that differ from their own.
