To cite this article: Fremlova, L (2019) LGBTIQ Roma and queer intersectionalities: the lived experiences of LGBTIQ Roma, European Journal of Politics and Gender, vol xx, no xx, 1–19, DOI: 10.1332/251510819X15765046909970
The article has won the Council for European Studies (CES) Gender and Sexuality Research Network Best Article for 2019 and was the 4th most read article in the European Journal of Politics and Gender
RESEARCH ARTICLE
LGBTIQ Roma and queer intersectionalities: the lived experiences of LGBTIQ Roma
Dr Lucie Fremlova
Abstract: Roma of minority sexual and gender identities experience oppression and inequality as Roma and LGBTIQ. Moving past a frame of reference in Romani Studies that has often foregrounded ethnicity, this article utilises the lived experiences of LGBTIQ Roma in order to explore understandings of Romani identities as fluid but nonetheless informed by interlocking axes of inequality. Data were generated through participant observation, focus groups and interviews with LGBTIQ Roma, and were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal that individuals who self-identify as Roma also make multiple identifications on other grounds, including sex/gender, sexuality, gender identity or class. In this article, I argue that reading intersectionality in conjunction with queer assemblages – ‘queer intersectionalities’ – benefits queer (non-normative) intersectional understandings of Romani identities as not anchored in the notion of fixed ‘groupness’ or essentialist difference while allowing us to identify and interrogate the inequitable workings of asymmetrical hegemonic power relations constitutive of binary social norm(ativitie)s.
key words Roma • LGBTIQ • identity • ethnicity • queer • intersectionalities
key messages
- Romani identities (dis)assemble against the backdrop of interlocking axes of inequality.
- Queer intersectionalities help us understand Romani identities as fluid, not fixed.
- LGBTIQ Roma’s experiences pose a fundamental challenge to dominant conceptualisations of Romani identities.
- LGBTIQ Roma’s experiences defy accounts of Roma as ‘anachronistic’ and ‘antithetical’ to modernity and Europeanness.
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bup/ejpg/2020/00000003/00000003/art00005#