Being a Queer and/or Trans Person of Colour in the UK: Psychology, Intersectionality and Subjectivity

270 Pages·2017·1.67 MB·English

by  Davis, Stephanie

Being a Queer and/or Trans Person
of Colour in the UK: Psychology,
Intersectionality and Subjectivity

Stephanie Davis

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment
of the requirements of the University
of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy

March 2017
Abstract
This research looks at the emergence of queer and trans people of colour
(QTPOC) activist groups in the UK, considering the tensions around
inclusion and belonging across lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer
(LGBTQ) and of colour communities for these individuals. The research
sought to explore what QTPOC activism means in the UK context, how it
operates and for what purpose; the ways QTPOC activisms support the
negotiation and affirmation of marginalised sexual, gender, racial identities
and/or help navigate racism, queerphobia and transphobia; and in what
ways personal involvement with QTPOC activisms impact subjectivity. The
research was grounded in a critical psychology approach, firmly situating
QTPOC within wider social, political and historical contexts to understand
how subjectivities were formed and shaped. Drawing on postcolonial and
black feminist theory, the research emphasised coloniality and the
postcolonial context of the UK as well as utilising an intersectional lens to
explore the intersections of race, gender and sexuality at the macro and
micro levels. Inspired by Johnson’s (2015) psychosocial manifesto, the
research also focused on ontology and the feeling, embodied experience of
being-in-the-world. Knit ting together postcolonial, black feminist and queer
theory alongside critical psychology a novel phenomenological interpretative
framework was developed which attended to both the wider contexts and
the everyday lived experience of being a queer and trans person of colour
involved in QTPOC activism. Utilising interventions into phenomenology by
Fanon (1986) and Ahmed (2006) a queerly raced hermeneutic
phenomenological analysis was developed. This was used to analyse the
data from focus group and photo elic itation interviews with participants from
three different QTPOC groups across the UK. The research highlighted
QTPOC experiences of exclusion from mainstream LGBTQ communities
and of non -belonging as a racialized, gendered, sexualized Other within the
post colonial British context. Participants shared the difficulties of finding the
language to understand their own lived experiences within a society
orientated around and towards white (hetero)normativity. QTPOC activist
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groups were experienced as spaces of belonging; in which to disidentify
from white heteronormativity; of affirmation; and in which one could begin to
decolonise gender and sexuality. The difficulties of activist organising were
also considered; the privileging of paranoid reading and how to manage
conflict and abuse, the possibilities of reparative reading (Sedgwick, 2003)
and how to relate to histories of politically Black struggle. This is the first
research of its kind to explore QTPOC activism in the UK. It will be of
interest to critical psychology, psychosocial and gender and sexuality
scholars to explore intersectionality and coloniality and the postcolonial
further. The development of an original and creative phenomenological
interpretative framework will be of interest to researchers exploring the lived
experiences of those racialized, and of minoritized gender and sexuality. It
provides recommendations for further research and interventions into
practice for counsellors, third sector organisations and activists.

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Contents

Acronyms and definitions ........................................................................................... 7
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 8
Declaration ................................................................................................................. 9
Chapter One: Queer and Trans People of Colour in the U ..K................................. 10
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 10
Situating Queer and Trans People of Colour within Histories of Struggle in the
UK ......................................................................................................................... 13
Reviewing the limited research into Queer and Trans People of Colour ............ 25
Conclusion and summary of chapters .................................................................. 29
Chapter Two: QTPOC and critical psychological engagements with gender,
sexuality and race .................................................................................................... 31
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 31
The History of Critical Psychology ....................................................................... 31
Orientations to race, gender and sexuality in psychology and cr itical psychology
.............................................................................................................................. 41
Intersectionality: Threading race, gender and sexuality together in critical
psychology ............................................................................................................ 51
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 55
Chapter Three: Developing a theoretical framework for understanding the lived
experience of being - in- the- world for queer and trans people of co .l.o..u..r......... 57
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 57
Emphasising coloniality and the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality .... 57
Intersectionality, queer and psychodynamic theory and the lived experiences of
negotiating the intersections ................................................................................. 61
Subjectivity, intersectionality and psychodynamic theory ................................ 61
Navigating intersectional lived experience ....................................................... 67
Queer Race and Phenomenological Analysis ..................................................... 73
What is hermeneutic phenomenology? ............................................................ 73
Queer and critical race phenomenological interventions ................................. 79
Conclusion: Drawing together psychodynamic the ory and a queerly raced
hermeneutic phenomenological analysis ............................................................. 84
Chapter Four: Developing a methodology ............................................................... 86
Methodology: A queerly raced hermeneutic phenomenological analysis ........... 87
Ethics .................................................................................................................. 103
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Researcher Reflexivity........................................................................................ 107
Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 111
Chapter Five: Understanding the QTPOC group experiential perspective ........... 112
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 112
Theme 1: Naming and Defining the Self and Collective ‘QTPOC’ .................... 112
Theme 2: Being Excluded .................................................................................. 121
Theme 3: QTPOC groups provide social support .............................................. 126
Theme 4: Negotiating and Developing QTPOC Identities ................................. 133
Theme 5: QTPOC Mental and Physical Wellbeing ............................................ 139
Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 141
Chapter Six: Belonging .......................................................................................... 142
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 142
Disconnection ..................................................................................................... 142
Saying the unsayable ......................................................................................... 148
Belonging and racial melancholia ...................................................................... 151
Chapter Seven: Being in community and developing a critical [decolonising]
consciousness ........................................................................................................ 160
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 160
Theme 2: QTPOC space of belonging and affirmation ...................................... 160
Theme 3: Developing a critical decolonising con sciousness ............................ 170
Theme 4: Difficulties of being in community ...................................................... 179
Chapter Eight: Conclusion ..................................................................................... 191
Limitations ........................................................................................................... 198
Recommendations and future directions ........................................................... 200
References ............................................................................................................. 203
Appendices ............................................................................................................. 216
Appendix 1 .......................................................................................................... 216
Appendix 2 .......................................................................................................... 217
Appendix 3 .......................................................................................................... 221
Appendix 4 .......................................................................................................... 224
Appendix 5 .......................................................................................................... 227
Appendix 6 .......................................................................................................... 230
Appendix 7 .......................................................................................................... 233
Appendix 8 .......................................................................................................... 234
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Appendix 9 .......................................................................................................... 236
Appendix 10 ........................................................................................................ 239
Appendix 11 ........................................................................................................ 249
Appendix 12 ........................................................................................................ 259
Appendix 13 ........................................................................................................ 262
Appendix 14 ........................................................................................................ 267
Appendix 15 ........................................................................................................ 269

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Acronyms and definitions

BME: Black Minority Ethnic
LGBTQ: Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer
QTPOC: Queer and Trans People of Colour
QTIPOC: Queer, Trans and Intersex People of Colour
Cisgender or ‘cis’: People who are not transgender; those whose gender
aligns with the gender they were assigned at birth.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the queer and trans people of colour groups and
individuals who kindly took part in this research and who graciously shared
their lived experiences with me.
I am incredibly grateful for the support and guidance of my supervisory
team. Thank you to Katherine Johnson, Hannah Frith and Nichola Khan for
encouraging my academic and intellectual development.
Thank you to my mentor, Catherine Wilson, for your warmth, understanding,
expertise and kind support.
Finally, thank you to Arlie Adlington, Linda and Gez Davis, and Sophie and
Bobby Anderson-Davis for sustaining me through the highs and the lows
and the bits in between.

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Declaration

I declare that the research contained in this thesis, unless otherwise
formally indicated within the text, is the original work of the author. The
thesis has not been previously submitted to this or any other university for a
degree, and does not incorporate any material already submitted for a
degree.
Signed
Dated

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