“Being Yourself is a Sin”: The Impact of Evangelical Purity Culture on Sexual and Gender Minority People Socialized as Women

Evangelical Christian purity culture is an abstinence-based, gender essentialist approach to teaching children and adolescents about sex. Key purity culture concepts include the existence of sexual virginity and the importance of its preservation, heteronormative relationships with strictly enforced binary gender roles, and the idea that sexual exploration is dangerous and morally destructive. The present study uses a critical feminist lens to explore the experiences of sexual minority (SM) women, and assigned female at birth (AFAB) people raised and socialized as women in purity culture. Our study analyzes 12 in-depth interviews using consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology. Purity culture messages and expectations significantly impacted participants in five domains: embodied female experience, sexual oppression, interpersonal power dynamics, SM specific oppression, and healing and resistance. Participants internalized oppressive messages that produced sexual shame while also exhibiting resistance to purity culture messaging and expectations. Recommendations for practitioners and future directions for research are discussed.