Informed Consent
You are being asked to participate in an online survey for a research project being carried out by Tuomas Pirttimaki, a clinical psychology doctoral student, at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at National Louis University. The study is called “Intersecting Identities and Conflicting Belonging: Religious Microaggressions Among Religious Sexual and Gender Minorities Within the LGBT Community,” and is occurring from June 2026 to December 2026. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between religious microaggressions and psychological distress among religious lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) individuals within the LGBTQ+ community. This study will help clinicians working with LGBTQ+ clients to assess for religious identity conflict and religious experiences within LGBTQ+ spaces. Similarly, this study may help build inclusive dialogue about religion within sexual and gender minority spaces. This information outlines the purpose of the study and describes your involvement and rights as a participant.
Please understand that the purpose of the study is to explore the intersectionality of religion and sexual/gender identities, and not to evaluate or assign blame to any community or group. Participation in this study will include:
Completion of the following online survey is expected to take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
Your participation is voluntary and can be discontinued at any time without penalty or bias. The results of this study may be published in academic journals or presented at conferences and employed to inform clinicians in their work with LGBTQ+ individuals. However, participants’ identities will not be revealed in any way (data will be reported anonymously and will not include any identifiers that could connect data to individual participants). To ensure confidentiality, the compiled data will be stored in a password-protected folder on the primary researcher’s password-protected computer. Only the researcher and dissertation chair will have access to the data. All data will be permanently destroyed six months after the completion of data collection.
The information gained from this study could be useful to clinicians and others working with LGBTQ+ individuals looking to provide more culturally responsive and affirming care. This study involves minimal risk. However, some questions ask about experiences related to religious identity, sexual orientation, discrimination, and psychological distress, which may evoke emotional discomfort, distress, or difficult memories. You may skip any questions you do not wish to answer and may discontinue participation at any time without penalty. If you are experiencing distress or a crisis, support is available 24/7. You can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for help. For LGBTQ+ youth or anyone seeking specialized support, the Trevor Project offers crisis services. You can call 1-866-488-7386, text START to 678-678, or access chat support through their website at thetrevorproject.org/get-help. These resources provide confidential help whenever you need it.