Producing Institutional Selves: Rhetorically Constructing the Dignity of Sexually Marginalized Catholics

Using the example of sexually marginalized people who are devoutly Catholic, we explore how apparently contradictory identities can be reconciled rhetorically. Our data are newsletters produced by an organization called Dignity, which has support group and social change missions for its members who are both sexually marginalized and devoutly Catholic. Within the narrative framework we explore how these newsletters can be read as rhetorically reconciling seemingly contradictory identities by producing a type of narrative character who simultaneously is proudly sexually marginalized and devoutly Catholic. In our discussion we address the potential personal and political possibilities and limitations of the Dignified Self story, the difficulty of evaluating the political usefulness of such stories, and the importance of research empirically examining the organizational production of types of selves.