Keeping up appearances: Experiences of identifying with gender and sexuality

Homonormativity, the normalising and privileging of some expressions of LGBT identities and ways of living over others, has the potential to have adverse effects on expression of identity within the LGBT community. This qualitative study set out to explore homonormativity, within a Northern Ireland context. Interviews were conducted with nine participants aged between 22 and 65 who took part in individual semi-structured interviews. The resulting data was explored using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) resulting in three superordinate themes: ‘Disconnected and unseen’, ‘Going in social circles’ and ‘Generational differences’. Participant experiences reflected varying degrees of support for homonormativity. Of note was that not all participants reported opinions or experiences which align with those in homonormative theory. Similarly, bisexual and transgender participants acknowledged that a focus on equal marriage was more important to those identifying as lesbian and gay. However, bisexual and transgender participants were open in expressing the important role that marriage equality laws have played for the whole community in increasing visibility – a perspective which homonormativity theory does not appear to acknowledge.