Studying LGBT+ Lived Experiences

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

In this post, find a multidisciplinary collection of studies conducted to understand some aspect of LGBTQ+ people’s lives and their communities. In a previous Methodspace post, find articles about the experiences of LGBT+ researchers, and methodological and ethical considerations for research with LGBT+ participants. Unless noted, the articles are available open-access.

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Research about LGBT+ experiences: Societal influences, discrimination and/or harassment

Barnard, S., Dainty, A., Lewis, S., & Culora, A. (2022). Conceptualising Work as a ‘Safe Space’ for Negotiating LGBT Identities: Navigating Careers in the Construction Sector. Work, Employment and Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170221090164

Abstract. Despite sustained focus in recent years on understanding the experiences of underrepresented groups in construction, there has been a paucity of work that has explored the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers. Research has shown homophobia is commonplace in the construction industry and very few gay employees feel able to be open about their sexuality. Using qualitative data garnered from 16 in-depth interviews and a focus group with LGBT workers in the UK construction sector, this article analyses how participants negotiate identities at work and navigate their careers. Drawing on the concept of heteronormativity we consider how organisational contexts frame, constrict and liberate identities in the workplace. Significantly, our findings show that despite enduring heteronormative structures, work was described by participants as a ‘safe space’. By demonstrating how workers assess, move between and create ‘safe spaces’, this article contributes novel insights into the challenging of heteronormativity in heteronormative work contexts.

Bayrakdar, S., & King, A. (2023). LGBT discrimination, harassment and violence in Germany, Portugal and the UK: A quantitative comparative approach. Current Sociology, 71(1), 152–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921211039271

Abstract. This article examines the incidents of discrimination, harassment and violence experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) individuals in Germany, Portugal and the UK. Using a large cross-national survey and adopting an intra-categorical intersectional approach, it documents how the likelihood of experiencing discrimination, harassment and violence changes within LGBT communities across three national contexts. Moreover, it explores how individual characteristics are associated with the likelihood of experiencing such incidents. The results show that trans people are more at risk compared to cisgender gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals to experience discrimination, harassment and violence. However, other factors, such as socioeconomic resources, also affect the likelihood of individuals experiencing such incidents. The three countries in our study show some nuanced differences in likelihood levels of experiencing discrimination, harassment and violence with regard to differential categories of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Bickford, J., & Lawson, D. (2020). Examining Patterns within Challenged or Banned Primary Elementary Books. Journal Of Curriculum Studies Research, 2(1), 16-38. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.2

Abstract. Public schools and public libraries often receive challenges—suppression or removal requests—to particular books, which can lead the book being banned. Research has examined challenges to books with multicultural themes and individuals, noted that authors of color are disproportionally targeted, and recognized the remarkable number of challenges to books deemed to be classic. This qualitative content analysis research utilized both with inductive and deductive elements—open coding and axial coding—to examine challenged books intended for primary elementary students. The theoretical framework blended critical multiculturalism, gay and lesbian identity, and radical politics in children’s literature. Findings included patterns based on era, frequency and location of challenge, demography of challenger, and oft-challenged themes, specifically sexuality (sexual reproduction and diverse sexualities), inappropriate humor, danger, death, racial and religious diversity, mysticism and wizardry, racially or culturally insensitive elements, concerning interpersonal dynamics, and evolution. Meaning is extracted for teachers, librarians, administrators, and researchers.

Essers, C., van der Heijden, B., Fletcher, L., & Pijpers, R. (2022). It’s all about identity: The identity constructions of LGBT entrepreneurs from an intersectionality perspective. International Small Business Journal, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/02662426221128464

Abstract. This article illustrates how lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) entrepreneurs engage in identity construction from an intersectionality perspective. Our empirical findings suggest that the sexual identities of our interviewees are essential aspects of their daily business lives in terms of their entrepreneurial identities and their motivations, key success factors and the barriers they face. By analysing their experiences from an intersectionality perspective, we illustrate how the sexual minority entrepreneurs in our study internalise and respond to dominant societal ideas characterising ‘the entrepreneur’ as masculine, heterosexual and male, vis-à-vis ‘the homosexual’, constructed as feminine, weak and different. We discuss two predominant manifestations of their responses to these contextual forces, portrayed in their identities as entrepreneurs and sexual minorities simultaneously and the ways these identities are experienced. Our study contributes to the literature on minority entrepreneurship, specifically the LGBT entrepreneurship literature, and on intersectionality and career sustainability, focusing on how LGBT entrepreneurs conduct entrepreneurship at the intersection of their sexuality and gender.

Freude, L., & Waites, M. (2023). Analysing homophobia, xenophobia and sexual nationalisms in Africa: Comparing quantitative attitudes data to reveal societal differences. Current Sociology, 71(1), 173–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921221078045

Abstract. To problematise Western discourses of a homophobic Africa, there is a need to analyse evidence of homophobia and its interplay with other attitudes, in ways that explore contextual differences. Hence, this article offers an original sociological analysis of quantitative data on homophobia in African states, examining how this inter-relates with xenophobia. Social attitudes data are drawn from the Afrobarometer research project as a unique and important source, and compared in five diverse contexts: Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia. Data are examined from Round 6 (2014–2015) and Round 7 (2016–2018). Findings are interpreted in light of specific national literatures on the relations between sexuality, gender and nationalism, as well as wider critical and postcolonial perspectives – especially conceptualisation of sexual nationalisms, and recent literatures on political homophobia. Whereas analyses of homonationalism in Western societies have explored alignments of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights affirmation with anti-immigrant attitudes, this study explores such relationships between homophobic and xenophobic attitudes in alternative patterns within specific African contexts. The analysis delivered not only challenges Western discourses of generalised African homophobia (especially discussing the counterexample of Mozambique) but also advances understanding of the complexity of how attitudes inter-relate in different postcolonial states.

Haynes, A., Schweppe, J., & Garland, J. (2023). The production of hate crime victim status: Discourses of normalisation and the experiences of LGBT community members. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958231160252

Abstract. This article identifies discourses which serve to ‘normalise’ experiences of anti-LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) violence and prevent harmed LGBT persons from accessing the status of ‘hate crime victim’. The phenomenon of normalisation is established in research addressing homophobic, biphobic and transphobic violence, where it is understood fundamentally as the rendering unremarkable of violent manifestations of hate due to their ubiquity. This article interrogates the dynamics of the normalisation process. Drawing on a Foucauldian approach, we explore normalisation as a disciplinary practice, through which people who have experienced anti-LGBT violence are denied access to the status of hate crime victim. Through discourse analysis of focus group data, we identify obstacles to identification and self-identification as a victim grounded in the experience and anticipation of judgement both within society and the LGBT community. Discourses against which the claims of LGBT people are adjudicated (re)produce cultural myths about hate crime, about anti-LGBT violence and about victimhood. While this article acknowledges that the value of identifying as a victim is not uncontested, it also asserts that the practice of normalisation, in denying this status, impacts on access to justice and to support. Far from passive, LGBT people who do not self-identify as victims find ways to manage the impacts of hate using their own resources. In this manner, the disciplinary practice of ‘normalisation’ responsibilises persons harmed by social ills for their own care and silences potentially disruptive claims of victimhood on the part of marginal people.

Ingersoll, A. R., & Cook, A. (2022). Collisions of difference: Teaching gender and sexuality in a conservative and religious culture. Equity in Education & Society, 1(1), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/27526461211066496

Abstract. Gender and sexuality have been at the forefront of societal debate in recent years with various legal battles concerning LGBT rights and religious liberties taking center stage. Shifts in attitudes and gains in legal protections have served to entrench conservative religious beliefs and to perpetuate generational “bitter” knowledge. This study seeks to understand the types of beliefs brought into the classroom by students and to examine the role of religious socialization in shaping and maintaining problematic beliefs in the context of learning new discordant knowledge. The data demonstrate that students bring “bitter” or problematic knowledge into the classroom, which serves as an obstacle to engaging in critical inquiry. We explore how the educational technique of engaging in pedagogies of discomfort invites students to see things differently and to examine how the religious institution has shaped their beliefs and values. We conclude with the call for educators to create authenticity and safety through sharing in self-examination and presenting their own vulnerability within the course.

Määttä, S., & Vernet, S. (2023). Reacting to homophobia in a French online discussion: The fuzzy boundaries between heteronormativity and homophobia. Discourse & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265231168760

Abstract. This article analyzes how participants of an online discussion thread related to a YouTube video on homophobia expressed their opposition to homophobia. Both the video and the 403 posts in the discussion thread are in French. On the surface, the data are characterized by strong antagonism between the stances that support and those that are critical of LGBTQ persons. However, a closer look at the posts expressing a pro-LGBTQ stance reveals considerable variation among them: they range from an open deconstruction of homophobia to more ambivalent positions that draw on ideologies circulating within the heteronormative order and are naturalized in the everyday discourse of spontaneous online interactions. We analyze five categories of posts expressing different forms of pro-LGBTQ stances to highlight their fuzzy boundaries with homophobic stances. The analysis draws on argumentative discourse analysis, focusing on process types used to construct arguments and topoi, as well as deictic elements through which the authors of these posts express their distance vis-à-vis homophobia and LGBTQ persons.

McCormack, M. (2020). Advocacy Research on Homophobia in Education: Claims-Making, Trauma Construction and the Politics of Evidence. Sociology, 54(1), 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038519858585

Abstract. Sociology has an ambivalent relationship with advocacy research because the benefits of participation and engagement must be balanced with concerns about bias. The current study uses 10 recent research reports on homophobia in British educational settings, written and funded by campaigning charities, as a case study of contemporary advocacy research. Presenting a sociological analysis of these documents and adopting a social problems approach, claims-making processes in the reports are documented and significant methodological and analytical flaws are identified. Instead of objective research, these reports are campaigning documents that seek to gain media coverage and influence policy. Implications for how the reports should be used as resources for research and social policy are examined, and a more nuanced and sophisticated approach to engaging with advocacy research is called for.

Pickles, J. (2022). Supporting LGBT+ People Experiencing Hate: Perspectives from LGBT+ Youth and Community Workers. Sociological Research Online, 27(2), 396–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804211015817

Abstract. Based on data taken from lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) youth and community workers, this article highlights the occupational stressors experienced by LGBT+ professionals who provide emotional support to service users and theorises the potential for vicarious victimisation to occur as a result. Research suggests that the emotional harms of ‘hate’ can indirectly victimise those with a shared identity as the primary victim, through emotional contagion. However, little research has been carried out on those who support victims of hate. I theorise that vicarious victimisation may occur where an individual, who shares the primary victim’s identity, takes on their experiences through a therapeutic relationship as a negative consequence of the emotional labour performed.

Pilkington, C. I. (2022). Negotiating queer voices: How five south African queer music educators negotiate their professional identity. International Journal of Music Education, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/02557614221144688

Abstract. Forced to navigate and negotiate their positionality and subjectivity, queer music educators confront unique challenges in heteronormative schooling environments. This minority group is often associated with the music industry. Still, upon entering an educational context, they navigate and negotiate their identity, specifically the tension between their queer selves and the heteronormative requirements of their teaching context. This article analyses the narratives of five queer music educators situated in a South African context. Being a queer music educator myself, I used a relational approach, the Listening Guide, to listen for the contrapuntal voices that come to the fore when my participants reflected on their professional identity negotiation as music educators. The participants developed various strategies to negotiate their professional identity, with some reporting on its negative impact on effective teaching. This article suggests that heteronormativity in music education should be challenged to allow for an inclusive and affirming space for queer music educators and students.

Spruce, E. (2022). Queer encounters: Navigating ‘gay-friendly’ neighbourhoods with (and against) cultural maps of homophobia. Sexualities, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607221091451

Abstract. This article provides an intersectional analysis of LGBTQ definitions, experiences and perceptions of the ‘gay-friendly’ neighbourhood. It draws on interviews with a diverse group of LGBTQ people living in the London neighbourhood of Brixton to provide a situated interrogation of the ways that evaluations of place-based ‘gay-un/friendliness’ are made. The article argues that LGBTQ people’s experiences of local places are frequently framed through cultural maps, which sustain and connect racialized and classed spatializations of sexual progress across multiple scales. Despite this tendency, however, other accounts – in particular those of long-term residents and queers of colour – provide contradictory evaluations of Brixton’s ‘gay-friendliness’. These trouble dominant assumptions about the conditions needed for LGBTQ flourishing and thereby suggest an expanded horizon for urban sexual politics. Examining the paradox of Brixton’s designation as ‘gay-unfriendly’ even as it is a vibrant site of LGBTQ life, the article demonstrates the importance of an intersectional approach that attends to variations and specificities in the relationship between sexual politics, local places and LGBTQ experiences.

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More Methodspace posts about LGBTQ+ research and Pride month