CHAMPIONS OF MARGINALITY: KAZAKHSTANI LGBTQ+ RIGHTS ACTIVISTS’ IDENTITY AND EXPERIENCE AS CONTENTIOUS CONTRIBUTORS TO THE WELFARE OF SOCIETY

Abstract

This study explores the experience of Kazakh LGBTQ+ activists with a focus on their activist and intersectional identities, as well as their navigation of their work within a hegemonic state confronting non-cis-heteronormative people and expressions using the theories of intersectionality by Patricia Hill Collins and cultural hegemony by Antonio Gramsci. The study has a qualitative design, including seven personal interviews with adult self-identified LGBTQ+ activists, and uses inductive thematic analysis for data analysis. According to the results, Kazakhstani LGBTQ+ activists construct their identity based on a totality of intersectional social markers, the central basis of which is their non-cisheterosexuality, and internalize it as a special perspective of more privileged representatives of their group whose duty is to help less lucky ones. They manifest this identity for the most part through resistance to symbolic hegemonic norms, focusing on helping LGBTQ+ people on the ground and changing the narrative about them, either without interacting or experiencing negative interactions with agents of hegemony – the systemic structures of Kazakhstan and its public majority. The study recommends a replication of this study with some revisions for greater representativeness, as well as an additional quantitative project on the same topic and in-depth studies on some of the trends revealed here.