Religious Trauma & LGBTQ+ Identity — with Andrew Pledger

TW: depression, child abuse, victim blaming, suicide, conversion therapy, homophobia, and other potentially sensitive topics In this conversation, Andrew Pledger shares his experience of getting expelled from the Bob Jones University (BJU), a Christian fundamentalist school in Greenville, South Carolina. We discuss religious trauma and being queer in an evangelical environment. References mentioned during our conversation: • Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP) -- for LGBTQ+ students whose religious schools discriminate against them. • Elizabeth Hunter. • Bessel A. van der Kolk's book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Andrew mentioned quite a few psychology topics, including attachment theory, developmental trauma, religious trauma, religious addiction, spiritual bypassing, complex PTSD, and dissociation.