LGBTQ+ People of Color’s Experiences of Community Bias and Discrimination, Identity Integration, and Well-Being
Daniel Nguyen
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07/27/2021
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The purpose of this project was to understand: 1) the differences in mental well-being between LGBTQ+ Whites and people of color, 2) how race and ethnicity impacts the process of coming to terms with one’s sexual and/or gender identity, 3) bias against LGBTQ+ people in one’s racial community or culture, 4) racial bias in the LGBTQ+ community, and 5) identity integration.
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- [00:00:00.610]Hello everyone, my name is Daniel Nguyen,
- [00:00:02.480]and today I'll be presenting on my research
- [00:00:04.300]about LGBTQ+ people of color's experiences
- [00:00:07.140]of community bias and discrimination,
- [00:00:09.440]identity integration and wellbeing.
- [00:00:14.040]Race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality,
- [00:00:16.320]are all important aspects of
- [00:00:18.460]the psychological sense of self,
- [00:00:20.420]our bases for discrimination, and together impact wellbeing.
- [00:00:25.000]LGBTQ+ people face discrimination
- [00:00:27.260]based on gender and sexuality,
- [00:00:29.320]both from the broader society and
- [00:00:31.010]even within the LGBTQ+ community.
- [00:00:34.550]LGBTQ+ people of color, on top of that,
- [00:00:37.840]face specific forms of discrimination,
- [00:00:41.170]such as gender and sexual discrimination
- [00:00:43.450]particular to their racial community,
- [00:00:45.600]and racial discrimination, both from the broader society,
- [00:00:48.650]and from those within the LGBTQ+ community.
- [00:00:51.920]Little research exists that focuses on differences
- [00:00:54.990]in experiences between LGBTQ+ people of color and whites.
- [00:00:58.750]And on the intersectionality of race,
- [00:01:00.740]gender, and sexuality altogether.
- [00:01:03.950]Some questions that we asked were,
- [00:01:05.600]Are there differences in wellbeing
- [00:01:07.160]between LGBTQ+ whites and people of color?
- [00:01:10.350]Does race impact the process of coming to terms
- [00:01:12.810]with sexual and/or gender identity?
- [00:01:15.270]What unique experiences of community bias
- [00:01:17.820]and discrimination do LGBTQ+ people of color face?
- [00:01:22.010]And does race impact the extent to which
- [00:01:24.450]separate social identities can be integrated?
- [00:01:27.610]Participants were recruited through
- [00:01:29.370]university LGBTQ+ centers, LGBT+ organizations,
- [00:01:33.780]social media, Listservs, and personal contacts.
- [00:01:36.920]They were asked to complete a survey
- [00:01:38.340]and an open ended interview.
- [00:01:41.180]The survey measures that we used looked at wellbeing,
- [00:01:44.310]identity development,
- [00:01:45.220]and commitment of racial and sexual identity,
- [00:01:47.660]gender identity,
- [00:01:48.590]psychological connection to the LGBTQ+ community,
- [00:01:51.350]and perceived microaggressions.
- [00:01:53.220]However, we are still collecting survey data,
- [00:01:55.390]so today I'll be primarily presenting on
- [00:01:57.220]the findings of the interview data.
- [00:02:00.530]This table shows the percentage of participants
- [00:02:02.890]discussing different types of discrimination
- [00:02:05.200]between people of color and whites.
- [00:02:07.490]Both people of color and whites discussed
- [00:02:09.630]experiencing gender and sexual discrimination.
- [00:02:12.670]However, only people of color discussed
- [00:02:15.090]experiencing racial bias.
- [00:02:17.520]Another finding is that when discussing
- [00:02:19.260]gender and sexual discrimination,
- [00:02:21.210]people of color seem to focus more on
- [00:02:23.760]the discrimination that took place
- [00:02:26.020]in their specific communities.
- [00:02:27.620]For example, their specific racial community
- [00:02:30.240]or within the LGBT+ community,
- [00:02:32.690]while whites talked about discrimination
- [00:02:34.840]that happened from the broader society.
- [00:02:38.470]In conducting the analysis,
- [00:02:40.370]we arrived at four overarching themes.
- [00:02:43.070]Different racialized experiences,
- [00:02:45.060]formative experiences in identity, community bias,
- [00:02:48.140]and the integration of identity.
- [00:02:50.740]First is different racialized experiences.
- [00:02:54.370]People of color commonly discussed
- [00:02:56.730]having a racial community,
- [00:02:58.600]whereas whites didn't necessarily see other white people
- [00:03:01.400]or their family as constituting a racial community.
- [00:03:04.800]People of color thought about
- [00:03:06.200]their race in social situations,
- [00:03:08.650]whereas that was much less common whites.
- [00:03:12.310]Further, people of color discuss racial bias,
- [00:03:14.780]both from the broader society,
- [00:03:16.260]and from those within the LGBTQ+ community.
- [00:03:19.860]Another issue was the fetishization of race
- [00:03:22.390]and dating context for people of color.
- [00:03:24.680]For example, one participant reflected,
- [00:03:27.057]"I've been on gay dating apps
- [00:03:28.680]and have been fetishized for being spicy
- [00:03:30.820]or tropical or having some white person
- [00:03:33.270]being, 'like I love Mexico.'
- [00:03:35.370]It's people glorifying my homeland or the way I look."
- [00:03:39.510]Whereas people of color discussed racial bias,
- [00:03:42.490]whites are more apt to discuss
- [00:03:44.090]racial privilege that they believed they had.
- [00:03:47.060]When people of color talked about the racial bias they had,
- [00:03:49.860]it was directed towards themselves
- [00:03:51.640]while whites talked about it in terms of
- [00:03:53.490]it being directed at people of color.
- [00:03:56.960]The next overarching theme is
- [00:03:58.770]formative experiences and identity development.
- [00:04:02.220]Everyone in the sample talked about
- [00:04:03.810]negative experiences related to being LGBTQ+
- [00:04:07.540]such as family tolerance of LGBTQ+ identities,
- [00:04:10.770]lacking early knowledge about ways of identifying,
- [00:04:13.430]and having to conceal identities.
- [00:04:16.050]All talked about sexual and gender expectations
- [00:04:18.750]from society broadly, and religion,
- [00:04:21.270]but only people of color talked about specific expectations
- [00:04:24.390]particular to their racial community.
- [00:04:28.530]Further, people of color described race
- [00:04:30.450]as impacting the process directly
- [00:04:33.200]of coming to terms with their sexuality and gender.
- [00:04:36.810]The next overarching theme we had was community bias.
- [00:04:40.810]People of color, again,
- [00:04:42.210]described biases against LGBTQ+ people,
- [00:04:45.820]specifically to their racial community.
- [00:04:47.860]Another form of bias was gender bias,
- [00:04:49.760]which was primarily discussed by cisgender women
- [00:04:52.220]and trans and gender nonconformed people.
- [00:04:55.630]This forum bias came from the broader society
- [00:04:58.160]and from the LGBT+ community.
- [00:05:01.400]One final form of bias that was often discussed
- [00:05:03.380]was the sexual discrimination that was specifically faced
- [00:05:05.920]by those attracted to more than one gender.
- [00:05:08.170]So for example, people who are bisexual and/or pansexual.
- [00:05:12.490]This was another form of discrimination
- [00:05:14.470]that also came from the broader society
- [00:05:16.660]and from others within the LGBTQ+ community.
- [00:05:19.920]Finally, our last overarching theme
- [00:05:22.590]is the integration of identity.
- [00:05:25.200]Participants were asked which identity
- [00:05:27.260]they felt was most central to their sense of self.
- [00:05:29.930]One example of a response was,
- [00:05:31.683]" I feel like my race and ethnicity,
- [00:05:33.700]that's really based in growing up in a rural state
- [00:05:36.150]and being constantly reminded about children
- [00:05:38.400]who are socialized by their parents to be racist,
- [00:05:40.950]that I'm a black/brown person.
- [00:05:44.050]People with marginalized identities
- [00:05:45.560]discussed not engaging in social interaction
- [00:05:47.440]with people who don't share identities
- [00:05:49.250]to avoid facing discrimination.
- [00:05:51.970]Participants with multiple marginalized identities
- [00:05:54.500]also discussed being made particularly vulnerable
- [00:05:57.120]and subject to discrimination because of their identities.
- [00:06:00.720]One participant said, "Whenever I'm in a space,
- [00:06:03.270]I'm usually feeling in the minority.
- [00:06:05.150]If it's all black people, if it's all gay people,
- [00:06:07.930]I'm the only one who's black
- [00:06:09.110]or the only one who's transgender.
- [00:06:10.930]It's hard to not feel a bit isolated
- [00:06:12.670]in one or more identities at the same time.
- [00:06:16.240]For LGBTQ+ people of color,
- [00:06:18.260]finding community with other people of color,
- [00:06:21.460]particularly those of the same race,
- [00:06:23.630]seem to be beneficial and helpful
- [00:06:25.540]in the integration of separate identities.
- [00:06:29.100]Based on these results,
- [00:06:30.540]racial identity seems to be only salient
- [00:06:32.480]in social situations for people of color.
- [00:06:35.800]And racial bias is a unique struggle
- [00:06:37.870]for LGBTQ+ people of color.
- [00:06:40.260]In cultures that are unaccepting of LGBTQ+ identity,
- [00:06:43.560]coming to terms with one's sexuality and their gender
- [00:06:46.030]may require distance from one's racial community,
- [00:06:48.500]making integration more difficult.
- [00:06:50.700]Because of this, finding community
- [00:06:52.620]with LGBT+ people of color
- [00:06:54.230]is a protective factor for wellbeing.
- [00:06:58.290]Future research can look at different
- [00:07:00.210]approaches to diversity and community,
- [00:07:03.060]intergroup differences between ethnic groups
- [00:07:05.520]rather than between each broad racial category,
- [00:07:08.400]and predictors for the integration of multiple identities.
- [00:07:11.830]Finally, future research might also think about
- [00:07:14.820]integrating other dimensions of identity,
- [00:07:17.690]such as class, immigration status, and disability.
- [00:07:21.900]For their contributions to this research,
- [00:07:23.670]I would like to thank Dr. Cynthia Willis-Esqueda,
- [00:07:25.850]my UNL faculty mentor,
- [00:07:27.940]Kendra Quiroz, and the UNL McNair Scholars Program.
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