• Background

◦ I'm interested in this because of my own personal journey of self discovery

▪ myself and a lot of my friends are formerly religious due to the alienation they faced
because of their sexuality
▪ so naturally I wanted to look at some numbers about this
• What we're dealing with
◦ Independent: sexual orientation
◦ Dependent: belief in higher power
◦ Dependent: whether or not you think non-hetero sex is wrong
◦ Dependent: whether or not you're spiritual
• Hypotheses
◦ If one is not heterosexual, then they are less likely to believe in a higher power
◦ If one is heterosexual, they are more likely to think non-hetero sex is wrong
◦ If one is not heterosexual, then they are less likely to be spiritual
• Description of data
◦ Belief in higher power
Total Heterosexual Non-hetero P Cramer's V
Belief 2080 (90.6%) 1983 (90.7%) 98 (89.1%) 0.32 0.01
No Belief 215 (9.4%) 203 (9.3%) 12 (10.9%)
2295 (100%) 2186 (100%) 110 (100%)
▪ This shows that the null hypotheses (sexuality and belief in a higher power are
unrelated) is rejected.
▪ However, because the Cramer's V is only .01, this means that the likelihood of being
wrong by this assumption is only reduced by 1%. This is likely due to the small amount
of people who reported their sexuality if they were not heterosexual.
◦ Non-hetero sex opinions
Total Heterosexual Non-hetero P Cramer's V
Wrong 751 (49.4%) 743 (51%) 8 (12.5%) 0 0.16
Not wrong 770 (50.6%) 714 (49%) 56 (87.5%)
1521 (100%) 1457 (100%) 64 (100%)
• The null hypotheses (sexuality and non-hetero sex opinions are unrelated) is rejected.
• By looking at sexuality, one can reduce the chances of being wrong about their opinion
on non-hetero sex relations by 16%.
◦ Spirituality
Total Heterosexual Non-hetero P Cramer's V
Spiritual 1518 (66.2%) 1452 (66.5%) 66 (60%) 2.01 0.03
Not Spiritual 774 (33.8%) 730 (33.5%) 44 (40%)
2292 (100%) 2182 (100%) 110 (100%)
▪ The null hypotheses (that spirituality and sexuality are unrelated) is accepted.
• Conclusion
◦ These results are a little tricky to interpret because of the small number of people who
reported their sexual orientation
◦ I was surprised to see that spirituality wasn't related to sexuality, although I suppose it
makes sense because people who are spiritual aren't necessarily religious, and non-
heterosexual people, like others, may have their own definitions of spirituality.
◦ There are so many factors that go into participating in organized religion or not as well that
should probably be looked into before drawing any conclusions