I’m Not Queer or Undocumented, I’m Both: Rethinking the Undocuqueer's Multiple-Marginalized Identity

• In Event: 498 - Regular Session. Sociology of Sexuality: Identity and the Discursive Construction of Sexuality

Abstract

What it means to be queer and undocumented in the United States is shifting. In part, this change is due to the increasing legal recognition of same-sex marriage and immigration reform, such as the renewal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. A group of queer and undocumented activists—undocuqueers—are using their experiences as members of at least two marginalized groups to fight for immigrant and LGBTQ rights.

Despite their growing visibility, undocuqueers are underrepresented in sexualities and immigration research. Work that focuses on their subjectivity presents undocuqueers as homogenous subjects who are living “single issue lives” (Cardenas 2007). My paper addresses these gaps by examining how undocuqueers work to claim multiple identities, including non-normative sexuality, undocumented status and race. I suggest moving away from treating sexuality and immigration status as mutually exclusive entities—and instead I position queerness, undocumented status and race as constructing and constraining the reproduction of the undocuqueer’s identity.

Based on the analysis of six undocuqueers’ online narratives, I examine the intricacies and complexities of being undocumented, queer and non-white. In particular, I study the undocuqueer’s subjectivity as an effect of two contexts: the local (home, school and work) and the global (social, cultural and legal). In contrast with the current literature, I find that undocuqueers’ identification processes are non-linear and their visibility as undocumented and queer mutually inform one other. Unlike subjects who are either queer or undocumented, undocuqueers identify in larger, and often more marginalized, spaces of exclusion.

Author

• Rachel Bogan, City University of New York-Graduate Center