From “coming out” to “Undocuqueer”: intersections between illegality and queerness and the US undocumented youth movement

Abstract

This chapter explores the intersectionality of seeking citizenship and gender on the movement strategies of undocumented youths by tracing the evolvement of the Undocuqueer movement within the overall undocumented youth movement in the United States since 2001. By analyzing both tactics and narrative self-representations of Undocuqueer activists, it describes the specificities of UndocuQueer challenges and opportunities in order to trace how LGBTQ representations of undocumented youth legitimized themselves within the larger scope of the movement. In the course of this discussion, it is clear that the UndocuQueer tactics are not be understood as a parallel occurrence to earlier representations of undocumentedness, but instead as an intersecting one in the fight for social justice, which almost organically grew from within the overall undocumented community.