ABSTRACT
Where are queer spiritual spaces and what happens in them? This book doesn’t provide a definitive answer to that question – so, reader, if you are an aspiring logical positivist, put it down now before you get disappointed or enraged.1 Our book is the culmination and review of a research project conducted during 2008-2009, which involved a group of academics talking to about 150 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and Intersex [LGBTQI]2 peoples involved in several religious/spiritual traditions. The institutional and non-institutional case studies chosen were, namely: the predominantly Christian Quakers, Muslims, and Buddhists, together with those ‘non-aligned’ more place-based faith activities: the New Age community at Findhorn in Scotland, spirituality at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in the US and the ‘spiritually curious online’ on the (global) Internet. The following chapters are arranged in this order. Our intention in the project was to ‘go fishing’ – to ask open questions, to see what we could find, and to be as curious and receptive as possible to what our participants said.
