Dear Colleagues,
I wanted to pass on the DOI and summary (below) of a new journal article
from Dr. Thomas Wynter and myself from P*olitics and Gender* entitled: "The
Costs of Pride: Survey Results from LGBTQI Activists in the United States,
United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia." DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X19000205

While the data set isn't available yet, I thought it was important to note
"queer methods" and consider quantitative studies of marginalized
populations. In this case, LGBTQI activists had to self-identify, however,
we used targeted Facebook ads (with a Qualtrics link). The survey was 36
questions long, which also asked for more of a commitment - and it asked
what kind of activism they participated in. Additionally, our survey
development had to consider questions about sexual identity and gender
identity.

If you have any questions please let me know. Thank you, Chris

--
Dr. Christopher Pepin-Neff
Pronouns: He/His
www.christopherneff.com

--

*Summary: *LGBTQI Activists in Four Countries Provide New Data on
Intersectionality



In a new journal article published in *Politics & Gender*, Thomas Wynter
and myself test core principles of intersectionality theory, first proposed
by Black feminist legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw. In brief:



·      In 2017, 1,019 LGBTQI activists were surveyed from South Africa,
U.S., U.K., and Australia and asked how “emotional taxing” it is to work on
certain LGBTQI issues (marriage equality, LGBTQ military, Senior Care,
Workplace Discrimination, Youth Homelessness and Mental Health) and to
participate in certain actions (tweeting, Facebooking, marches, personal
expressions of identity, handing out flyers, attending events, lobbying,
and leading a protest).

·      Across all four countries, LGBTQI activists report high levels of
emotional taxation working in the movement;

·      Transgender people of colour (TPOC) report experiencing both higher
levels of taxation and having a different lived experience of what of
activists’ issues and tactics are the most emotionally taxing.



Intersectionality holds that people have multiple heterogenous identities,
that oppression is more severe at the intersection of marginalized
identities, and that as a result the lived experiences that all men or all
women have are different based on race, sexual orientation, class, and
ability. However, rather than simply a list of negatively reinforcing
pieces of oneself, intersectionality speaks to the way systems and
structures in society render some people more vulnerable than others based
on a social hierarchy of identities.



Wynter and I use my concept of “emotional taxation” to operationalize an
examination of the oppressions and vulnerability conceived of in
intersectionality. Emotional taxation is defined as “the emotional cost,
intentional or not, that a policy, program, or scheme places on an
individual or group for entering into the political process or addressing a
political issue. The impact of this emotional tax (the level of taxation)
to enter the policy process is relative to an individual or groups
political power (i.e degree of stigma), capacity to pay the cost, and
collective support.”



There are four key findings from this study:



First, LGBTQI activists experience a high degree of emotional taxation for
their work within the LGBTQI movement. This is consistent with the high
degree of burnout within certain sections of the LGBTQI community. Most
interesting was that across all four countries, activist respondents
indicated that it was fellow LGBTQI activists who presented the greatest
obstacle to achieving equality. In other words, when asked what they
thought was the biggest challenge to equality, opponents or allies,
respondents selected allies. However, this is not entirely surprising. It
is consistent with the literature regarding the U.S. Civil Rights movement,
parts of the Women’s movement, and the Peace movement. Indeed, Amin
Ghaziani’s research into LGBTQI “infighting” is also informative because
while infighting can often be generative and help a coalition, it can also
stifle progress. This was the view of our respondents.



Secondly, young, transgender, activists of colour experienced the worst
levels of emotional taxation, because these identities are among the most
marginalized and the intersection of age, race, and gender are points of
acute oppression, consistent with intersectionality. Even the experiences
of white transgender activist respondents were markedly different than
those of transgender people of colour. This means that the experiences of
LGBTQI activists are not evenly shared with some “groups within groups”
paying a higher emotional cost than others.



Third, there are important differences in each country. In Australia,
non-white respondents were less emotionally taxed to deal with the issue of
same-sex marriage than in every other country, suggesting that this was a
less critical issue for many in the Aboriginal community. In the UK, those
over 35 were the least taxed of any country on the issue of youth
homelessness. In South Africa only 7 percent of respondents identified as
transgender, nearly 10 percent below every other country. And in the United
States, those under 35 felt more emotional taxation working on issues
related to workplace discrimination that in the other countries.



Fourth, we found that certain activist issues and activities distributed
emotional taxation unevenly. For intersectionally marginalized groups,
particularly transgender activists of colour, public-facing activities like
tweeting, posting to Facebook, or leading a protest were more burdensome
than marching in a pride parade or handing out flyers. This may be due to
increased trolling and discrimination when they are seen in isolation. In
short, we found that costs were greater on the basis of identity, activity,
and issue, which means that coalitions of activists face a range of
difficult circumstances.



The implications of this research affect the make-up of coalitions, the
types of issues that certain populations of activists may select, and the
way activists sustain political penalties against opponents on emotionally
difficult issues. To begin, the main goal of social movement activists is
to apply political pressure and enforce political penalties. However, this
may be more difficult and more harmful for some. Activism is a
self-selected action with emotional costs and benefits. There may be a
filtering effect based on emotional taxation that influences the type of
issues that are advocated for on a non-profit’s agenda, and the ability of
a coalition to maintain activist unity and apply political penalties over a
long period of time.


If some tactics and issues impact more marginalized groups more harshly
then this may drive them to avoid participation, changing the makeup and
agenda of an activist coalition or increasing their likelihood of burnout
for those some more than others. Some issues, like human rights advocacy,
are designed by political systems and structures to exhaust most of the
activists involved in the policy process, to require sustained emotional
opposition in the face of entrenched power. Thus, it is important to know
that when activists choose to engage on emotionally difficult issues like
responses to school shootings, police violence, and LGBTQI homelessness,
and then require tactics like protests, letter writing, or lobbying
these  issues
and these tactics can deplete the emotional resources of certain
populations involved, making change less likely.

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