Abstract
AbstractSince the Stonewall uprisings, there has been greater social acceptance of homosexuality within Western contexts. Nevertheless, those who are at the intersection of more than one minority identity continue to face prejudice and discrimination, including homophobia and racism. Though there has been increasing work regarding the experiences of sexual minority people of colour (POC), a lacuna remains regarding the experiences of sexual minority British Muslim South Asian men and the integration of sexual minority and religious identities, particularly within a context of increased societal acceptance towards sexual minorities and societal Islamophobia. In this study, 38 sexual minority British Muslim South Asian men were recruited via snowball sampling and interviewed. Data were examined via reflexive thematic analysis. Five themes were identified: degrees of “outness”, hegemonic Whiteness and the LGBTQ+ community, internalisation of White hegemony, distancing from the sexual minority religio‐cultural ingroup, and attempting to reconcile potential identity conflict between sexual orientation identity and religious and cultural identities. Respondents' experiences highlighted substantial social exclusion due to intersectional disadvantage as well as a lack of intra‐community social support, suggesting substantial isolation, psychological implications and a general eschewing of identity affiliation based on sexual attraction. This has implications on services predicated on identity affiliation which may potentially exclude the needs of hidden and intersectionally disadvantaged populations.
Highlights
Since the Stonewall riots in the US and the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK a half-century ago, there has been gradual societal acceptance of homosexuality (Curtice, Clery, Perry, Phillips, & Rahim, 2019) in Western contexts
Participants reflected on the potential benefits or disadvantages of “coming out” while negotiating their relationships to their communities and their reputation; while older participants may have internalised and acknowledged their sexual orientation, they largely noted no positive benefit disclosing it to others
The findings of this study suggested that wider societal acceptance of homosexuality was not necessarily reflected in the everyday experiences of British Muslim South Asian sexual minority men
Summary
Since the Stonewall riots in the US and the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK a half-century ago, there has been gradual societal acceptance of homosexuality (Curtice, Clery, Perry, Phillips, & Rahim, 2019) in Western contexts This has been enshrined in UK legislation with the Civil Partnership Act 2004, Equalities Act 2010, and Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. One potential explanation might be perceived negative consequences of “coming-out”, e.g. family rejection, detrimental impacts on family reputation or, in extreme cases, honour-based violence (Khan & Lowe, 2020; Kumpasoglu, Hasdemir, & CanelÇınarbas, 2020) This distinction between behaviour and identity may be felt by ethnic and religious minorities (Balaji et al, 2012; Carrillo & Hoffman, 2016). It is important to understand potential challenges to positive identity integration amongst minorities at the intersection of sexual, religious, and ethnic identities
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