An Intersectional Analysis of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) People’s Evaluations of Anti-Queer Violence

Abstract

The author uses an intersectionality framework to examine how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people evaluate the severity of their violent experiences. Previous research focusing on the severity of anti-LGBT violence has given relatively little attention to race, class, and gender as systems of power. In contrast, results from this study, based on 47 semi-structured, in-depth interviews, reveal that Black and Latino/Latina respondents often perceived anti-queer violence as implying that they had negatively represented their racial communities, whereas white respondents typically overlooked the racialized implications of their violent experiences. Furthermore, while lesbians of color emphasized their autonomy and self-sufficiency to challenge this discourse, Black and Latino gay men underscored their emotional and physical strength to undermine perceptions that they were weak for identifying as gay. Results also indicate that LGBT people experience forms of anti-queer violence in different ways depending on their social position, as Black lesbians faced discourse that neither white lesbians nor Black gay men were likely to confront. Thus, these findings suggest that topics primarily associated with homophobia should be examined through an intersectional lens.

No Homo: Gendered Dimensions of Homophobic Epithets Online

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Experiences of Discrimination, Harassment, and Violence in a Sample of Italian Transsexuals Who Have Undergone Sex-Reassignment Surgery

“…The number of experiences of discrimination, harassment, and violence showed no relationship with the participants' age or socioeconomic status, suggesting that such episodes might be actually explained as a result of one single system of inequality (Meyer, 2012; that is, belonging to a sexual minority group). However, another possible explanation is that it might be connected to a sample bias (as discussed in limits of the study).…”

Debates about the Scientific Status of Psychology: Looking at the Bright Side

“…Psychologists have found ways to point out the complexity and flux of human development by different approaches. A good example is the literature on intersectionality; e.g., Meyer 2012). Similarly, Goldstein (1995, p. 27) stresses that B[a]s soon as we attempt to grasp [living organisms] scientifically, we must take them apart.Ĥ owever, in regards to intersectionality, Budde (2013, p. 248) comes to the conclusion that Bone would need an infinite amount of categories […] to describe the complexity of life situations and power relations in an accurate and differentiated manner.…”