Intersectionality as a multipurpose collective action frame: The case of the undocumented youth movement

Abstract

During the early 2010s, undocumented youth activists were leading the charge to gain congressional support for the federal Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, which sought to provide a pathway to citizenship for eligible undocumented youth in the United States. Led primarily by Latino college students and graduates, this movement became very attentive to and inclusive of the concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer members. Drawing on semi-structured interviews of Latino lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer undocumented youth and other documentary evidence, this article demonstrates how activists can deploy intersectionality as a collective action frame that serves multiple purposes. Specifically, intersectionality can function as: (1) a diagnostic frame to help activists make sense of their own multiply-marginalized identities; (2) a motivational frame to inspire action; and (3) a prognostic frame that guides how activists build inclusive organizations and bridge social movements. We show how this frame guided the ways in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and other undocumented activists interpreted their own life experiences, prompted them to build inclusive organizations, and broadened the scope of their movement. We conclude by arguing that activists have the potential to adopt intersectionality as a master frame that strengthens ties among various movements mobilizing marginalized populations.