CILIA-LGBTIQ+

Comparing Intersectional Life Course Inequalities amongst LGBTIQ+ Citizens in Four European Countries

Project duration: 01/03/2018 - 31/08/2021

Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. María do Mar Castro Varela, Prof. Andrew King (University of Surrey), Prof. Ana Cristina Santos (Universidade de Coimbra), Prof. Yvette Taylor (University of Strathclyde)

Project staff: Yener Bayramoğlu (ASH Berlin)

Abstract:
In a unique study, researchers from four European regions will examine the complex and multiple inequality experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) citizens throughout their lives. The cross-national study builds on three "transitions" over the course of life: school and work (1), working life from middle age to retirement (2) and the impact on old age (3).

Together with our cooperating partners, we are comparing discrimination experiences in national and European contexts from an intersectional perspective. The methodologically ambitious study will study legislation in the European Union and the participating countries as well as collecting and analysing empirical data. We analyse how factors such as sexual and gender identity, class, nationality and migration cross over in different contexts and phases of life, and what social consequences these entail.

We want to know how life courses of LGBTIQ+ citizens are influenced by discrimination and to what extent, for example, anti-discrimination laws have an effect in the respective life situations of LGBTIQ+ people. The results of the study should help to substantiate political approaches to mitigating social inequalities. They should make an important contribution to the further development of the research agenda in this field. The special feature of the study is the focus on possible turning points in the life course of an LGBTIQ+ person and the first comparison of data sets from several European countries. In this way, the complex inequality experiences of this heterogeneous population group and the respective effects on their life courses can be better understood, and corresponding demands can be concretised.

Funding: DFG: NORFACE Transnational Research Programme on Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-Course

Keywords: LGBTIQ+, Inequalities, Aging, Discrimination in Work Life, Discrimination at School