LGBTIQ Roma and queer intersectionalities: the lived experiences of LGBTIQ Roma

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.