Sweeney, Dan2024-06-252024-06-252023-05https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/34519Past work suggests that sexual minorities experience stigma in religious environments, which in turn leads to adverse mental health outcomes. However, the experiences of young sexual minority men in Catholic environments remains understudied. To explore these experiences, ten participants who identified as gay men between the ages of 18 and 25 in the United States were interviewed about their experience with the Catholic Church, experience coming out, and any suggestions they have for the Church or other young gay men with a similar Catholic background. Interviews were coded following standard qualitative methods. When it came to the family unit, some family members, especially grandparents, were more stigmatizing and hateful than others. Participants’ experience in primary and secondary school was highly stigmatizing. Instructors sent a variety of stigmatizing messages and peers bullied many of the participants. Participants encountered stigma in college but to a lesser extent, citing friends as a source of belonging. Every participant leaned away from Catholicism as a result of their experience with the Church, and the majority of participants currently identify as atheist or agnostic. Advice to the Church centered around equity and inclusivity and advice towards young gay men centered around seeking safe spaces free of homophobia and hate. Future studies should be directed towards behavioral health interventions that target young gay men with a Catholic background and ultimately, wide-scale changes are needed to remove stigma from the Catholic Church entirely.en-USThesis