1 in 10 young adults experience homelessness every year and up to 40% of these young people identify as LGBTQ+. Most of the pathways to exit homelessness for youth and young adults require some sort of connection to resource brokers like family networks, education, employment, or social services. But LGBTQ+ young people experiencing homelessness also describe high amounts of discrimination from all these institutions. That makes us wonder, how many of these young people are exiting homelessness and finding stability if traditional ways out of homelessness are more difficult to access or are blocked completely?

In this dissertation, I investigate homeless pathways for LGBTQ+ young people and the long-term outcomes for their youth homeless episodes. I analyze the various resource networks that they access to survive, how they experience these networks, and if the networks are useful for them to achieve long-term stability. The aim of this project is to uncover the best-practices for helping LGBTQ+ young people exit homelessness in the long-term, but also allowing them to showcase their knowledge and expertise in navigating homelessness.

LGBQ Mormons often are told to either leave Mormonism or their sexuality behind. However, even those that have left the Church or avoid same-sex relationships cannot divorce themselves from either aspect of their lives.

I reform current research on identity reconciliation by grounding my investigation of LGBQ Mormons in Bourdieu’s theories of field and habitus. I consider Mormonism as a sexual field in which LGBQ Mormons have to grapple with their own embodied habitus to navigate the Mormon field. I have a paper currently under review entitled: Gay Mormon Pioneers and Mortal Trials: Navigating the Mormon Sexual Field of Struggles.