Thinking outside the rainbow: women of color redefining queer politics and identity

Abstract

This research explores the numerous ways queer Latinas and Asian/Pacific Islander women are marginalized in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement and their racial/ethnic communities in regards to their intersecting, subordinate identities. Through in-depth interviews with 25 queer identified women and ethnographic observation at Gay Pride events, this research examines how the women interviewed make sense of their overlapping oppressions as they affect and frame their experiences and shape their identities. By integrating Collins' notion of the outsider-within along with Sandoval's concept of differential oppositional consciousness, I assert that queer Latinas and Asian/Pacific Islander women experience marginality within the mainstream LGBT movement primarily as a function of invisibility that serves simultaneously as a source of alienation and empowerment, ultimately serving to challenge hegemonic notions of queer identity and politics.