LGBTQ+ Research: Ethics, Methods, and Experiences in the Field

by Janet Salmons, Ph.D., Research Community Manager for Methodspace

In September of 2022 an article came to my attention: “Doubly Marginalized: Addressing the Minority Stressors Experienced by LGBTQ+ Researchers Who Do LGBTQ+ Research”. I communicated with the researcher, and was saddened by the stories I heard. Dr. Veldhuis discussed her experiences of harassment and cyberbullying, and those of LGBTQ+ student researchers in the field. I asked her to write a guest post for Methodspace; see “Psychological Safety for Researchers”. We think about protecting participants, but clearly, concerns for personal safety of the researcher are also present when they study LGBTQ+ problems. Nevertheless, the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people merit scholarly study.

Fortunately, courageous researchers are overcoming the obstacles, often weaving reflexive attention to their own identities into the inquiry. In this post, find one multidisciplinary collection of articles about ethical practices and methods for such studies. In the second collection, find articles about the experiences of LGBT+ researchers, and ethical considerations for participants. Unless noted, the articles are available open-access.

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Research ethics and methods: Studying LGBT+ Participants

Beck, S. L. (2021). “Doing It” in the Kitchen: Rhetorical Field Methods, Arts/Practice-Based Research, and Queer Archives. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 21(1), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708620960160

Abstract. Everyday domestic spaces, such as kitchens, are often crucial to the understanding of practices and discourses of queer and other marginalized communities. However, due to the private nature of these spaces, they can be difficult for rhetorical critics and others to access. This article offers arts/practice-based research as an intervention into rhetorical field methods (RFM) as a means of accessing and engaging with private, often inaccessible places, such as kitchens. In addition, arts/practice-based methods can expand the notion of “doing” rhetoric and co-creation with participants, which result in the creation of subject formations and alternative, collaborative, and affective archives. Such building of collective queer archives is essential, I argue, in that it helps to not only document the “stuff” of queer lives but also capture fleeting and affective moments of queer collisions and becomings. In addition, arts/practice-based research methods can aid researchers to generate knowledge and archives related to underrepresented aspects of queer lives. To engage with queer domestic spaces and the intersection of RFM and arts/practice-based research, I reflect on Autostraddle.com’s “Queer in the Kitchen” gallery, my participation in the creation of this text, and the development of my own gallery Queering the Kitchen.

Blair, K. (2016). Ethical Research with Sexual and Gender Minorities. In (pp. 375-380). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483371283.n139

Abstract. This entry will discuss the history of research ethics as they apply to LGBTQ research, the debate concerning whether or not LGBTQ individuals should be considered a ‘vulnerable population’, methods of best practice for conducting ethically sound, inclusive LGBTQ research, and the ethics of selecting research topics concerning LGBTQ populations and experiences.

Coleman, J. J., Schey, R., Blackburn, M. V., Brochin, C., Cooper-Novack, G., Crawley, S. A., Cruz, C., Dutro, E., Helton, J., Islam, A.-Q., Jiménez, I., Lizárraga, J. R., Shrodes, A., Simon, R., Wickens, C. M., & Young, C. A. (2022). Intergenerational Queer Method(ologie)s: Dialogues in Literacy Research. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 71(1), 249–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/23813377221117165

Abstract. Comprised of seven intergenerational dialogues, this article brings together emerging and established scholars to query into the future of queer literacy research. Addressing generational shifts in queer method(ologie)s, these dialogues advance epistemological, ontological, and ethical research quandaries related to queer and trans studies today. Holding implications for literacy research broadly, this article presents queer futurity as a research approach for addressing some of our field's most pressing concerns.

Engel, A. (2019). Queer Reading as Power Play: Methodological Considerations for Discourse Analysis of Visual Material. Qualitative Inquiry, 25(4), 338–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800418789454 (Library or request access.)

Abstract. This article considers the social productivity of images through a methodological reflection on various ways of presenting and challenging visual materials through textual means. I suggest employing a power-sensitive method of ekphrasis which renders methodologically productive desiring relations implied or performed by the image (in short: engaged ekphrasis). Concerning discourse analysis of visual material, two questions are of particular interest: What does it mean to invoke a discourse through visual means? And what does it mean to confront a particular piece of visual material with a discourse that is not explicitly invoked by this material? Reconsidering the method developed in an earlier monograph, this article asks how one can incite an exchange between a visual work and a discursive formation. Does this process depend on or make particular use of aesthetic forms and strategies, as well as visual rhetoric? How does such an exchange contribute to the analysis of social power relations? What can be learned about the relevance of visualizing practices and conditions of visibility in reproducing or transforming social relations? I introduce the notion of images as instruments and agents of governmentality to develop these methodological reflections. A particular focus lies on the overlaps between economic and queer discourses. I support my arguments through close readings of two commercial advertisements.

Henrickson, M., Giwa, S., Hafford-Letchfield, T., Cocker, C., Mulé, N. J., Schaub, J., & Baril, A. (2020). Research ethics with gender and sexually diverse persons. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(18), 6615.

Abstract. Identifying and developing inclusive policy and practice responses to health and social inequities in gender and sexually diverse persons require inclusive research ethics and methods in order to develop sound data. This article articulates 12 ethical principles for researchers undertaking gender and sexually diverse social, health, and related research. We have called these the ‘Montréal Ethical Principles for Inclusive Research.’ While writing from an international social work perspective, our aim is to promote ethical research that benefits people being researched by all disciplines. This paper targets four groups of interest: 1. Cisgender and heterosexual researchers; 2. Researchers who research ‘general’ populations; 3. and sexually diverse researchers; 4. Human ethics committees. This article was stimulated by the 2018 Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles, which positions human dignity at its core. It is critically important to understand and account for the intersectionality of gender and sexuality with discourses of race, ethnicity, colonialism, dis/ability, age, etc. Taking this intersectionality into consideration, this article draws on scholarship that underpins ethical principles developed for other minoritized communities, to ensure that research addresses the autonomy of these participants at every stage. Research that positions inclusive research ethics at its foundation can provide a solid basis for policy and practice responses to health and social inequities in gender and sexually diverse persons.

Lee, C. (2019). Capturing the personal through the lens of the professional: The use of external data sources in autoethnography. Methodological Innovations, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2059799119825576

Abstract. This article shows how external data sources can be utilised in autoethnographic research. Beginning with an account of a critical incident that examines the incompatibility of private and professional identities, I show how, through the collection of data sources, I capture the impact of homophobic and heteronormative discursive practices on health, wellbeing and identity. In the critical incident, I explore how I prospered as a teacher at a British village school for almost 10 years by censoring my sexuality and carefully managing the intersection between my private and professional identities. However, when a malicious and homophobic neighbour and parent of children at the school exposed my sexuality to the Headteacher, I learned the extent to which the rural school community privileged and protected the heteronormative discourse. A poststructuralist theoretical framework underpins this article. My experience of being a subject is understood as the outcome of discursive practices. Sexual identity, teacher identity and autoethnographer identity are understood to be fluid, and constantly produced and reproduced in response to social, cultural and political influences. The article describes how email correspondence, medical records and notes from a course of cognitive behaviour therapy were deployed to augment my personal recollection and give a depth and richness to the narrative. As the critical incident became a police matter, examination takes place of how I sought to obtain and utilise data from the police national computer in the research. Attempts to collect data from the police and Crown Prosecution Service were problematic and provided an unexpected development in the research and offered additional insight into the nature of the British rural community and its police force.

Littler, C., & Joy, P. (2021). Queer considerations: Exploring the use of social media for research recruitment within LGBTQ communities. Research Ethics, 17(3), 267–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161211003021

Abstract. The use of social media platforms (such as Facebook) for research recruitment has continued to increase, especially during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Social media enables researchers to reach diverse communities that often do not have their voices heard in research. Social media research recruitment, however, can pose risks to both potential participants and the researchers. This topic paper presents ethical considerations related to social media recruitment, and offers an example of harassment and hate speech risks when social media is used for research recruitment. We explore the implications of hate speech risks for ethical research.

Meyer, S. J., Dale, E. J., & Willis, K. K. M. (2022). “Where My Gays At?” The Status of LGBTQ People and Queer Theory in Nonprofit Research. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 51(3), 566–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/08997640211021497

Abstract. This article critically examines academic scholarship in the field of nonprofit studies that pertains to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people and issues. We introduce the key tenets of queer theory, a critical theory which encourages questioning social constructs, to nonprofit studies as a lens through which to examine the nonprofit sector. Using a queer approach, we analyze the past research on LGBTQ issues along the continuums of whether the research subjects are active or passive participants, and whether the focus on LGBTQ issues is ancillary or central. We find a minority of articles, most written between 2015 and 2019, which position LGBTQ people as central and active participants in the research. We conclude by providing a research agenda for how queer theory can be applied to the nonprofit sector and argue that placing LGBTQ people and organizations as central constituencies in nonprofit research will facilitate social change.

Pickles, J. (2018). Contamination of overt data with covert data. Research Ethics, 14(4), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016117721281

Abstract. A research project was conducted which explored LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) hate crime. Participants were invited to share their narratives and personal experiences of hate crime, discrimination and violence through semi-structured interviews. The study helped us understand how people who experience ‘hate’ responded to, managed and reconciled the identities for which they were victimized. This case study focuses on a situation where a research participant requested a copy of an interview they gave for the hate crime project. The interview copy was to be used for the participant’s own personal purposes. The participant’s request potentially risked the contamination of ethical (overt) data collection, with their own covert data gathering. The ethical implications of this scenario raise many questions for ethicists and researchers to discuss.

Roffee, J. A., & Waling, A. (2017). Resolving ethical challenges when researching with minority and vulnerable populations: LGBTIQ victims of violence, harassment and bullying. Research Ethics, 13(1), 4–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016116658693

Abstract. This article provides an analysis of the issues and ethical challenges faced in a study with LGBTIQ student participants concerning their experiences of violence, harassment and bullying in tertiary settings. The authors detail the ethical challenges behind the development of the project, and around conducting research with a minority and vulnerable population. The article illustrates how the utilization of feminist and queer theory has impacted the process of conducting ethical research, including approaches to recruitment and participant autonomy. The dilemmas of confidentiality within a self-labelled and easily identifiable population are resolved. Further, unexpected challenges and risks to participant safety created through adherence to institutional ethical research frameworks are rectified. Importantly, the authors seek to avoid revictimization of participants and to instead empower students in their responses to violence, harassment and bullying that they may have experienced. The authors point to utilization of theoretical foundations and continual reflexive improvement as elements of best practice for those seeking to research minority populations, and in projects marked by the participation of those deemed vulnerable and high-risk.

Sims JP, Nolen C. “I Wouldn’t Trust the Parents To ‘Do No Harm’ To a Queer Kid”: Rethinking Parental Permission Requirements for Youth Participation in Social Science Research. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics. 2021;16(1-2):35-45. doi:10.1177/1556264620983134

Abstract. Obtaining parental consent for youth to participate in research is a standard requirement in the United States. However, the assumption that involving parents is the best way to protect youth research participants is untenable for some populations. This study draws on interviews with 19 LGBTQ+ mixed-race participants to examine lay views of parental consent requirements for LGBTQ+ youth research participants. Qualitative data analysis found concerns about potentially outing LGBTQ+ youth to intolerant parents. Interviewees also asserted that adolescents aged 16 and older are competent enough and should have the autonomy to consent themselves. Finally, interviewees raised several methodological concerns regarding the biased research that may result from parental consent requirements. We agree with others that U.S. Institutional Review Boards should end uncritical requirements for parental consent for older adolescents and should routinize the use and study of alternative protective measures.

LGBT+ Researchers: Experiences in the field

Atuk, T. (2020). Cruising in the Research Field: Queer, Feminist, and Cyber Autoethnography. International Review of Qualitative Research, 13(3), 351–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940844720939851 (Library or request access.)

Abstract. This essay is based on a cyber autoethnographic research I have conducted on Hornet, a geosocial networking application (GNA) created for gay and bisexual men, without establishing a clear-cut distinction between my identity as a user and that as a researcher. Here I discuss how feminist and queer autoethnography in and of cybercultures can refrain from objectifying or exploiting others by enabling research relations that (a) are not hierarchical, (b) disturb the researcher/researched binary, (c) embrace the impersonal ethics of cruising, and (d) do not shy away from recognizing the role of the researcher’s body unlike the conventional (masculine) researcher who allegedly has no emotional, erotic, or bodily presence within the field or in the research. I also address cruising as a queer autoethnographic method, while uncovering the methodological and ethical implications of doing autoethnography in a cyberfield that is libidinally invested.

McDonald, J. (2013). Coming out in the field: A queer reflexive account of shifting researcher identity. Management Learning, 44(2), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507612473711 (Library or request access.)

Abstract. This article contributes to the literature on reflexivity by articulating a queer reflexivity lens, which entails engaging in a reflexive questioning of the categories we use to identify people and recognizing the shifting nature of researcher and participant identities over the course of the research process. Queer reflexivity enables us to think differently about an important debate in qualitative methods concerning who can study whom. For instance, are white researchers in a position to study people of color? Are men able to study women and women’s issues? Can “straight”-identified researchers study the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community? I argue that the question of whether or not to “match” for categories of difference in research studies is complicated by the fluid, shifting nature of identities that queer theory highlights. In order to demonstrate how qualitative organizational researchers can learn about the craft of research through the concept of queer reflexivity, I recount an auto-ethnographic “coming-out” tale in which I discuss the implications of my shifting sexual identity over the course of a research project.

Nelson, R. (2020). Questioning identities/shifting identities: the impact of researching sex and gender on a researcher’s LGBT+ identity. Qualitative Research, 20(6), 910-926. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794120914522

Abstract. This article explores the role of reflexivity, emotion work and insider/outsider researcher status in one queer researcher’s experiences of conducting fieldwork. Through exploring field diaries and interview extracts, this article highlights the impact of being/researching LGBT+ identities as a queer researcher. Five experiences are discussed: (i) the euphoria of connection, (ii) relationships with participants, (iii) retraumatisation through listening, (iv) finding oneself on the outside and (v) the researcher’s shifting identity. The article concludes with suggestions on the impact studying one’s own identity can have on the researcher, and suggestions for engaging in similar research practices.

Rogers, S. A., & Rogers, B. A. (2023). Advantages and Challenges of Queer Scholars Doing Qualitative Queer Criminology and Criminal Justice Research. Crime & Delinquency, 69(2), 464–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287221108702 (Library or request access.)
Abstract. Qualitative researchers encounter obstacles related to publishing, acceptability, research self-disclosure, rapport development, feelings of guilt or vulnerability, and opportunity that quantitative scholars often do not. Here we discuss our experiences with these obstacles related to one queer qualitative study in hopes that it will provide knowledge to the next generation of queer qualitative scholars. We begin by discussing the state of the field in terms of qualitative scholarship and queer criminology, then we discuss our own experiences doing qualitative queer criminology. Our goal is to show why qualitative queer criminology matters, that it can be done despite its challenges, and to encourage the field of criminology and criminal justice to become more inclusive of qualitative methodologies.

Toft, A., & Ward, B. (2022). A Young Disabled LGBT+ Researchers Group: Working Collaboratively to Explore the Lives of Young Autistic LGBT+ Persons. Sociological Research Online, 27(4), 1104–1112. https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804221125233

Abstract. This article explores setting up a research group and outlines how we work together. The goal of the research group is to work collaboratively to conduct research on aspects of life for young disabled LGBT+ people that we think need more research. We hope to outline the aim of the group and what we want to achieve. It will also discuss our research principles and how we have conducted research together. We hope that the article provides insight on how to set up collaborative groups, how to work together, and what such groups can achieve. This article has been written collaboratively and this is reflected throughout.

Valentine, J. (2016). Relating our selves: Shifting frames of identity in storytelling with communities marginalised through sexuality and gender. Methodological Innovations, 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059799115625795

Abstract. Recording the lives of people in marginalised communities can be enhanced through the use of a range of participatory methods, relating our selves in ways that go beyond traditional interviews and oral history. Innovative artistic methodologies may catch and render contingent identities, our fluid and variously bounded selves, which are dependent on context, performance and narrative. This article reviews a community-led storytelling project that has generated reflexive narratives and a variety of storytelling methods by and for people marginalised by sexuality and gender. Queer Stories, undertaken by OurStory Scotland, became the world’s first project to focus on multi-media storytelling with a nationwide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community for public representation and national museum archiving. The aesthetic extension of narrative methods, through performance, fiction and display, reaches new publics and enables narrow identifications, fixed in dominant representations, to be challenged: stereotypes can be subverted and boundaries of identification undermined through the recognition of shifting frames of identity. Storytelling, through aesthetic distance, mutual identification and inclusive community ethics, fosters awareness of the contingency of all identity.

Veldhuis C.B. Doubly Marginalized: Addressing the Minority Stressors Experienced by LGBTQ+ Researchers Who Do LGBTQ+ Research. Health Education & Behavior. 2022;49(6):960-974. doi:10.1177/10901981221116795 See related Methodspace post by Dr. Veldhuis here.

Abstract. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary, and queer people (LGBTQ+) experience significantly higher levels of stressors due to discrimination, stigma, and marginalization than do cisgender heterosexual people. These high levels of stressors have impacts on health and well-being as well as career impacts. Limited research suggests that within higher education LGBTQ+ faculty experience bullying, discrimination, and harassment within the workplace. There is also data to suggest that research on marginalized populations is perceived to be less objective and valuable than research on majority populations. Research on the challenges of being a member of a marginalized population who conducts research on the same population suggests potentially negative career and personal impacts. To my knowledge, there has been little to no research on the double marginalization related to being an LGBTQ+ researcher doing research within the LGBTQ+ community. To describe the potential impacts of being an LGBTQ+ researcher who does LGBTQ+ research, I apply the extant literature on marginalized researchers who do research among marginalized populations to LGBTQ+ researchers. I also describe the potential minority stressors that LGBTQ+ researchers may face and how that may impact careers. Finally, I offer multiple recommendations for improvements for our research community and argue that senior faculty, leadership, and mentors can take specific actions to lessen stressors for LGBTQ+ researchers studying LGBTQ-related topics.

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More Methodspace posts about LGBTQ+ research and Pride month