Doing, being and verbalizing: Narratives of queer migrants from Muslim backgrounds in Spain

Abstract

The hegemonic narrative in the West establishes that having same-sex relationships constitutes an identity that must be public. This article analyses how this narrative is reproduced and/or subverted in the discourses of queer migrant people from Muslim backgrounds in Catalonia (Spain). The analysis of 10 interviews reveals a more fluid notion of sexual orientation, an uncomfortableness with the identity categories regarding sexuality, and a stronger distinction between the public and the private boundaries. The informants found themselves in a complex situation that made it impossible for them to completely reproduce or subvert the overlapping normativities of both the origin and host society, compelling them to devise hybrid strategies to live their sexuality. The article closes with a reflection on the implications of the different ways of living sexuality in relation to the theorization of sexual/intimate citizenship and LGBT equality policies, which also reproduce the western hegemonic understanding of sexuality.

Intersectional Challenges: How (Not) to Study and Support LGBTQs with a Migration Background

“…Queer migration research focuses on the intersection of sexual and gender diversity with ethnicity, which becomes particularly salient in a migration context. A key theme in this scholarship concerns the negotiation of Western identity concepts by non-Western migrants, leading to hybrid sexual cultures and questioning the universalizing tendencies in Western thought about sexuality (Coll-Planas et al, 2020;Luibhéid, 2005;Manalansan, 2006). This literature is critical of the tendency of policy makers to consider the acceptance of same-sex sexuality as an essential Western value and to one-sidedly impose it on migrants, disregarding their cultural values and sexual norms.…”

Recensió d’Out of Time. The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality de Rahul Rao

“…Catalunya en relació a l'entramat sexualitat, gènere, ètnia, raça, estat i nació (Coll Planas et al, 2020;Freude i Vergés Bosch, 2020;Rodó Zárate, 2020;Sadurní Balcells i Pujol Tarrés, 2015).…”