The impact of crises on sexual and gender minorities

The violent, social, and political targeting of sexual and gender minorities (SGM) is a global issue that saw an increase in frequency and severity in many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic is just one example of when leaders and societies have resorted to anti-SGM attitudes when a crisis occurs. Blaming and targeted use of violence towards SGM have followed in the wake of natural disasters, political and economic instability, and armed conflicts. Thus, crises seem to affect the social order in a way that opens possibilities for targeting SGM in various ways. These phenomena have previously been studied in isolation, giving rise to some theoretical explanations for targeting SGM – such as exclusionary nationalism, political homophobia, emergency politics, and autocratisation. However, systematic comparisons across different crises have not been made. This paper will present on the recently initiated Ph.D. research project that asks the following research questions: 1) How do different types of crises impact the targeting of sexual and gender minorities, and 2) are there shared characteristics between different types of crises that facilitate the targeting of sexual and gender minorities? The project is further guided by an overarching aim of addressing these questions from a queer perspective – namely, what is the queer experience of crisis? The theoretical framework departs from the abovementioned previous research, aiming to shed light on how the occurrence of crisis changes gender roles and ideals through mechanisms of nationalism, autocratisation, and emergency politics that foster conditions for targeting SGM. The project will mainly use interviews with civil society organizations and surveys distributed to individuals who identify as part of a SGM to investigate these questions.