Too Religious To Be Queer
Duration: 1 February 2023 to 28 February 2026
Project team: Dr Diego Garcia Rodriguez is PI
Project summary
Discourses mobilised through ‘transnational queerdom’ (including ‘Western’ queer scholarship, political discourses, and liberationist NGOs) have produced ‘homosecular’ frameworks establishing universal ways of being LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) through the rejection of faith. ‘Homosecularism’ refers to the expectation of belligerent secularism among LGBT people, deserving of rights only if they adhere to neoliberal values. While recent studies have explored political responses to LGBT asylum through the exclusionary management of cases in the UK, most literature departs from ‘Western’ models of being ‘authentically’ LGBT.
The critical importance of this Leverhulme-funded study lies in its potential to influence the assessment of LGBT asylum applications considering that no research has explored the role of religion for LGBT refugees and asylum seekers in the British context against the normative expectations of the Home Office when assessing their applications. ‘Credible’ testimonies are expected to describe narratives of escape, from an oppressive religion and society, into the protection of a secular and gay-friendly UK.
Theoretically, this project brings together two overlapping branches of epistemological inquiry: queer studies in religion and postcolonial theory, to problematise the role of ‘homosecularism’ in asylum processes through the perpetuation of sexual, gendered and racialised power structures vis-à-vis the intimate experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, whose narratives often clash with official approaches to queerness and religion as ‘opposites’. With this, the study will advance a framework conceptualising queer religious agency as an alternative to epistemologies grounding queer emancipatory discourses on secularity alone.
Aims
This project aims to delve into the lived experiences of LGBT religious refugees and asylum seekers. Moreover, it seeks to scrutinise the impact that homosecular contemporary LGBT identities have on the Home Office's asylum management practices.
It will do so by:
- Determining the role that religion and spirituality play for LGBT refugees and asylum seekers living in the UK, and to identify how this leads to the emergence of queer religious spaces. (RQ1) What might we learn about the agency of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers by exploring how, why, and to what extent they engage in individual and collective religious practices? (RQ2) Where, when, and how do we find actions that participants understand as religious, spiritual, or faith-related, and what impact do these have on their subjectivities? (RQ3) (How and why) do religiosities evolve across different times and settings?
- Exploring how LGBT refugees and asylum seekers contend with queer liberationist secularist discourses by uncovering the impact that secular values have on the negotiation of their gender, sexuality, and religion. (RQ4) What is at stake in employing religious values to promote sexual minority rights instead of a language of secular ‘liberation’?
- Examining the impact that the religion, faith and spirituality of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers have on the UK’s Home Office’s management of asylum claims. (RQ5) What are the expectations and presumptions of Home Office staff regarding LGBT ‘authentic’ identities? (RQ6) (How) do the religion, faith and spirituality of LGBT asylum seekers impact their applications?
Methodology
A key innovation is the project’s participatory framework based on co-creation including refugees and asylum seekers as active participants in the study’s implementation and analysis. Analysing the participating voices comparatively, the project employs a multi-method design. Firstly, the project involves the completion of a literature review to identify the key themes explored in current literature exploring the experiences of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers. Subsequently, 40 A Day in the Life sessions will be conducted with refugees and asylum seekers across the UK. This method is based on following participants through a typical day in their lives, which will be complemented with interviews to assess restrictions experienced, mobility patterns, and role of religion, faith and spirituality.
To identify unanticipated narratives, participant observation of events will be conducted, both online and physically at seminars, workshops, and debates. Additionally, 15 stakeholders providing services to refugees and asylum seekers will be interviewed to gather perceptions regarding LGBT asylum processes. Lastly, 3 Most Significant Change focus group discussions (FGDs) with 6-8 refugees and asylum seekers previously interviewed will be held in the final year to compare (a) variations in the role of religion across their lives, (b) experiences of asylum processes, and (c) impact of migration on their subjectivities. This participatory method involves producing personal accounts of change and determining which ones are the most significant and why. Data will be thematically analysed and discussed with a sample of participants to validate the findings using grounded theory, which will allow hypotheses to arise from the data.
The project is being conducted in solidarity with a range of NGOs and networks across the United Kingdom.
Research team
Diego Garcia Rodriguez (University of Nottingham, UK)
Contact
diego.garciarodriguez@nottingham.ac.uk