“To God, I Was Visible, and I Was Beautiful”: Parody and religious organizational resisting within (UN)CHANGED online narratives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Evangelical Christian groups have forwarded ex-gay rhetorics since the 1970s, shaping grand narratives of LGBTQIA+ exclusion within Christian spaces. Using a dialectic approach to organizational resistance, the current study traces the textual discursive interplay between narratives of the ex-gay Christian organization, CHANGED, and of the parody pro-LGBTQIA+ Christian organization UNCHANGED to uncover how LGBTQIA+ Christians resist exclusionary heteronormative grand narratives. We conducted a microstoria analysis of 108 personal narratives from both groups and found four emergent themes central to UNCHANGED members’ resistance processes: (a) narrated identity dissonance, (b) proclamation of God’s Truth, (c) mechanisms for resistance, and (d) rewards for living out God’s Truth. This study advances two important theoretical considerations: the utility of parody as an online resistance strategy and a reconceptualization of resistance as chronic (i.e., organizational resisting). Further implications, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.