Comparing Intersectional Life Course Inequalities amongst LGBTQI+ Citizens in Four European Countries (CILIA-LGBTQI+ study)
Start date
March 2018End date
September 2021About the study
The key objective is to provide cross-cultural evidence, for the first time ever, concerning life course inequalities experienced by LGBTQI+ people, comparing and contrasting these across four European countries with different yet interrelated social, historical, economic and political backgrounds: England, Scotland, Portugal and Germany. Additionally, the project examines how inequalities related to gender identity and/or sexuality vary and intersect with others, such as social class, ethnicity, citizenship status, health status, dis/ability, religion and geographical location across the life course.
Work-packages, led by research team members will be conducted in each of the four countries to gather data from existing national and international surveys, new qualitative research and legal, policy, organisational and practitioner documents. The accumulated data will also be used to develop a multi-agent based simulation model to inform theoretical development in relation to the LGBTQI+ intersectional life course and explore future policy and research agendas. The findings will be disseminated to academics and relevant stakeholders (e.g. organisations/service providers) through reports, social media, presentations and knowledge exchange activities in each applicant country.
The project is funded by NORFACE, a consortium of European Research Councils and is part of the Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course programme (DIAL).
Countries
Additional information, including events, podcasts, publications, videos and working papers, can be found on our individual country websites.
Funders
Stay connected
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@LGBTQILives
Team
The project lead and principal investigator for the England team is Professor Andrew King (University of Surrey). Andrew is joined at Surrey by Dr Sait Bayrakdar, Matthew Hall and Dr Peter Johnson. The other project principal investigators are Dr Ana Cristina Santos (Centre for Social Studies, Portugal), Professor Maria do Mar Castro Varela (Alice Salomon University, Germany) and Professor Yvette Taylor (University of Strathclyde, Scotland).
Partners
Professor Andrew King
Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender, University of Surrey
Biography
Andrew King is Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG) and is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Surrey. Andrew is particularly interested in questions of ageing, gender and sexualities and the majority of his research focuses on the lives and experiences of older lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people. He is currently Principal Investigator and Project Lead on “Comparing Intersectional Life Course Inequalities amongst LGBTQ Citizens in Four European Countries” (CILIA – LGBTQ) which runs from 01/03/2018-28/02/2021. He was Principal Investigator on the CRAG project 'SAFE Housing - older LGBT housing in later life' and was Principal Investigator on the ESRC knowledge exchange project 'Putting Policy into Practice' and its outputs can be found here. Andrew was the Principal Investigator on the ESRC seminar series entitled ‘Older LGBT Adults: Minding the Knowledge Gaps’ which ran from 2013-2015.
Publications
He has published many articles based on his research, including those in 'International Journal of Social Research Methodology', 'Sociology', 'Ageing and Society', 'Gender, Work and Organization' and 'Social Policy and Society' and ‘Sociological Review’. His monograph 'Older Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Adults: identities, intersections and institutions' was published by Routledge in May 2016. He has also published many chapters in edited collections. He is co-editor of 'Sexualities Research: Critical Interjections, Diverse Methodologies and Practical Applications' (Routledge, 2016) and the forthcoming books ‘Intersections of Ageing, Gender and Sexualities: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives’ (Policy Press) and ‘Older LGBT People: Minding the Knowledge Gaps’ (Routledge). Andrew was co-editor of Sociology (the flagship journal of the British Sociological Association) (2014-2017), is a member of the Editorial Board of Sociological Research Online and was Chair of the European Sociological Association Sexuality Research Network (RN23) 2011-2015. Andrew is also a member of the academic advisory board of the International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK).
María do Mar Castro Varela
Professor of pedagogy and social work, Alice Salomon University
Biography
María do Mar Castro Varela is professor of pedagogy and social work at the Alice Salomon University in Berlin with focus on gender and queer studies. She holds a double in psychology and pedagogy and a PhD in Political Science. Her research interests besides gender and queer studies are postcolonial theory, critical migration studies and critical education.
Publications
- Postkoloniale Theorie
- Eine kritische Einführung (co-author) und Die Dämonisierung der Anderen
- Rassismuskritik der Gegenwart (co-editor).
Ana Cristina Santos
Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra
Biography
Ana Cristina Santos is a sociologist and a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, working on LGBTIQ, gender, sexual citizenship and the body. Between 2014 and 2019, she was awarded a research grant by the European Research Council to lead the cross-national study INTIMATE - Citizenship, Care and Choice: The micropolitics of intimacy in Southern Europe . Between 2018 and 2021 she is the Principal Investigate for Portugal of the International Research Consortium for CILIA LGBTQ – Comparing Intersectional Life Course Inequalities amongst LGBTQ Citizens in Four European Countries, funded by the European Agency NORFACE.
Publications
Significant publications include Social Movements and Sexual Citizenship in Southern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and Sexualities Research: Critical Interjections, Diverse Methodologies, and Practical Applications (Routledge, 2017, with A. King and I. Crowhurst), as well as the Special Issue "Trans* Policy and Practice" of Critical Social Policy (2018, vol 38, n.1, with S. Hines, Z. Davy, S. Monro, J. Motmans, and J. Van Der Ros). Vice-chair of the Sexuality Research Network of the European Sociological Association between 2012 and 2016, since 2013 she is also Co-Director of the International PhD Program Human Rights in Contemporary Societies.
Yvette Taylor
Professor of Education, University of Strathclyde
Biography
Yvette Taylor is Professor of Education, University of Strathclyde. She has obtained a wide variety of funding, including ESRC funded ‘From the Coal Face to the Car Park? Gender and Class in the North East of England’ (2007-2009), ‘Making Space for Queer Identifying Religious Youth’ (2011-2013) and British Academy mid-career fellowship ‘Critical Terrain: Dividing Lines and Lives’ (2013-2014).
Publications
Yvette has published four sole-authored books based on funded research: Working-class Lesbian Life (2007); Lesbian and Gay Parenting (2009); Fitting Into Place? Class and Gender Geographies and Temporalities (2012) and Making Space for Queer Identifying Religious Youth (2015). Edited titles include Educational Diversity: the subject of difference and different subjects (2012); The Entrepreneurial University. Public Engagements, Intersecting Impacts (2014); Mapping Intimacies: Relations, Exchanges, Affects (2013); Queering Religion, Religious Queers (2014); Feeling Academic in the Neoliberal University: Feminist Flights, Fights and Failures (2018). Yvette edits the Palgrave Gender and Education Series and co-edits the Routledge Advances in Critical Diversities Series.
Researchers
Rita Alcaire
Research Fellow for Portugal of the International Research Consortium for CILIA LGBTQ
Biography
Rita Alcaire is an anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, Junior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies and a Research Fellow for Portugal of the International Research Consortium for CILIA LGBTQ – Comparing Intersectional Life Course Inequalities amongst LGBTQ Citizens in Four European Countries, funded by NORFACE.
Her interests lie in the study of sexualities, mental health and popular culture using video documentaries as a privileged ways of engaging with them. She co-directed Filhos do Tédio (2006), Para-Suicídio Pop (2008), Breve História do Rock (2010), O Pessoal do Pico Toma Conta Disso (2010), Um Quarto no Éter – um ano na Rádio Universidade de Coimbra (2011), Filarmónicas da Ilha Preta (2011) and Das 9 às 5 – trabalho sexual é trabalho (2011). She has several published works such as Filhos do Tédio (Pé de Página Publishers, 2005); the special issue of the Coimbra Arts Magazine (Arte à Parte, 2010), which she coordinated; and the chapter 'Representações da masturbação no cinema e televisão mainstream’ (Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2015).
Her (ongoing) PhD research in 'Human Rights in Contemporary Societies' draws on the current stories being told about asexuality narrated by healthcare providers, by the media as well as by self-identified asexuals, to challenge and rethink the notion of human rights.
Sait Bayrakdar
Postdoctoral research fellow in the CILIA-LGBTQI+ study, University of Surrey
Biography
Sait joined the University of Surrey as a postdoctoral research fellow in the CILIA-LGBTQI+ study. He works with Andrew King on the life course transitions of LGBTQI+ individuals. His main research interests are education, social stratification, youth transitions, intersectionality, life-course, and housing.
He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Essex, where he worked in the Norface-funded ‘2000 Families’ project and investigated the educational outcomes and mobility in Turkish families in Europe in comparison to the non-migrant families from similar backgrounds in Turkey. In this body of research, he studied the educational outcomes across generations and investigated the transmission of socio-economic resources over three generations. After finishing his Ph.D. he worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Cambridge where he investigated housing transitions of young adults. In this particular area, he studied the patterns of leaving parental home and transition to homeownership in Britain. Prior to joining The University of Surrey, he worked at King’s College London where he studied youth transitions to education, training, and employment.
Yener Bayramoglu
Postdoctoral researcher for the CILIA-LGBTQ Project, Alice Salomon University
Biography
Yener Bayramoglu is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher for the CILIA-LGBTQ Project at the Alice Salomon University in Berlin. Bayramoglu received his PhD in Media and Communication Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow working on a project on comparing the inequalities that LGBTQ refugees experience in Germany and Turkey, which was rewarded by a fellowship from the Margherita-von-Brentano-Center for Gender Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. He has taught at Alice Salomon University, Freie Universität Berlin and Braunschweig University of Art on topics gender, queer and diversity. His works has been published in several edited books and journals. His research interests include queer theory, queer migration, intersectionality, discourse analysis, cultural studies, digital ethnography and affect theory.
Matthew Hall
Research Fellow with CILIA-LGBTQI+, University of Surrey
Biography
Matthew Hall is a Research Fellow with CILIA-LGBTQI+ in the Department of Sociology, University of Surrey. He works with Andrew King exploring life-course and workplace inequalities of LGBTQI+ individuals. His main research interests cover LGBTQI+ life-course inequalities, hate crime and far-right extremism. Matt is near completion of his PhD at the University of Surrey where he is modelling the emergence of extremist groups using agent-based modelling and has recently finished working with the Alan Turing Institute, building an East Asian Prejudice Machine Learning Classifier. He has also taught a module on hate crime at the School of Law and Criminology, University of Greenwich.
Matson Lawrence
Research Associate with CILIA-LGBTQI+, University of Strathclyde
Biography
Matson Lawrence is a Research Associate with CILIA-LGBTQI+ based at the School of Education, University of Strathclyde. Prior to this role, he most recently worked on the TransEdu Scotland research and wider TransEDU project based at the University Strathclyde. Funded by the Scottish Funding Council and recently awarded a 2018 Guardian University Award, the research examined the experiences of, and current provision for, trans and non-binary applicants, students and staff in colleges and universities across Scotland. His forthcoming co-authored book – Supporting Trans and Non-Binary Students and Staff in Further and Higher Education – will be published in spring 2019. Matson has also led Creative Scotland-funded research on young disabled and D/deaf people’s access to arts provision, and has worked extensively with intersectional LGBTIQ+ communities in the third and arts sectors.
Matson holds an interdisciplinary Doctorate in law and applied social sciences from Durham University examining young adults’ perspectives on pornography and its legal regulation, and has been a Research Assistant on several gender-based violence projects. He is currently also on part-time secondment at the Scottish Funding Council as a Senior Policy / Analysis Officer, with responsibility for the Gender Action Plan and the British Sign Language National Plan.
Ana Lucia Santos
Research Fellow for Portugal of the International Research Consortium for CILIA LGBTQ
Biography
Ana Lucia Santos holds a degree in Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Coimbra and an MA in Feminist Studies from the same university with a thesis on intersex. She is a junior researcher at Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, since 2012, where she previously worked in research projects related to sexuality of disabled women and LGBTQ intimate citizenship in Southern Europe. Presently she is a Research Fellow in the European research project CILIA LGBTQI+, working on life course inequalities. She is also a PhD student in Feminist Studies at the University of Coimbra researching gender policies applied to non-normative bodies (trans and intersex) in sports. Her research interests focus on feminist studies, sexual citizenship, posthumanism, queer theory, crip theory, gender identity/expression, sexual characteristics. She is also an activist in the LGBT/queer and feminist movements in Portugal.
Events and presentations
We attend several presentations and events across the world to discuss the project.
CILIA PT Final Event (23 September 2021)
Final seminar, featuring the State Secretary for Citizenship and Equality and other intervenient stakeholders, where results and recommendations produced by the CILIA LGBTQI+ Lives research team in Portugal were discussed.
European Sociological Association Conference (1 September 2021)
Ana Cristina Santos, ‘Ageing, diversity and equality amongst LGBTQI+ older adults, in the scope of Queer Lifespan: Life Course Inequalities amongst LGBTQI+ citizens in Europe panel, European Sociological Association Conference.
CILIA LGBTQI+ Lives Portugal video (June 2021)
Based on findings of the project. Taking into account what has changed and what remains the same, we advance recommendations and underline the importance of evidence-based research about LGBTQI+ lived experiences across the lifespan. Directed by: Nuno Barbosa (nunobarbosa.com).
Latin American Studies Association Conference (26-29 May 2021)
Ana Cristina Santos, ‘Diversity and care in 60+ LGBTQI people’, LASA 2021 – Latin American Studies Association Conference.
International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOTIB) (12 May 2021)
Ana Cristina Santos, invited speaker at IDAHOTIB event organized by EU Commission and the Portuguese Presidency. The event featured European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli, State Secretary Rosa Monteiro and Principal Investigator Ana Cristina Santos speaking about LGBTI+ lifecourse inequalities and knowledge-production drawing on key findings of the CILIA LGBTQI+ and the Diversity and Childhood research projects. Includes an engaging Q&A.
European journal of women's studies virtual spring symposium (29 April 2021)
Ana Cristina Santos, ‘LGBTI+ Rights, Research and Justice in the Midst of a Pandemic’, European journal of women's studies virtual spring symposium: Gender Studies in the Time of a Global Pandemic: Key Themes, Critical Issues, Challenges & Opportunities.
Contemporary Intimacies, Sexualities and Genders Research Group (CISG) research group (21 April 2021)
Ana Cristina Santos, invited speaker at the launch of the CISG research group of the Center for Applied Social Sciences Research at Manchester Metropolitan University.
British Sociological Association (BSA) Annual Conference 2021 (online) (15 April 2021)
Matt delivered findings from our CILIA LGBTQI+ lifecourse interviews, and Matt and Andy’s upcoming book chapter, exploring the concept of ‘Queer Generations’. Here we outlined how LGBTQI+ lives present a challenge to traditional and normative ways of thinking about social generations and the historical events understood to define them. We also present an alternative approach – conceptualising queer generational cohorts as emerging at the intersection between formative queer historical events, such as the Stonewall riots, and meaningful stages/processes in the queer lifecourse, such as ‘coming out’
XI Portuguese Congress of Sociology (29-31 March 2021)
The CILIA LGBTQI+ Lives project was represented in three panels of the Sexuality and Gender Thematic Section during the XI Portuguese Congress of Sociology:
- Ana Cristina Santos, ‘Diversity and care relationships in LGBTQI+ people over 60’;
- Ana Lúcia Santos, ‘Precariousness and resilience: impacts of family and work discrimination for LGBTQ young adults’;
- Rita Alcaire, ‘Holding rights, not hands: affection and safety in midlife LGBTQI+ people in Portugal’.
Mobilization for LGBTQI+ rights (13 March 2021)
Rita Alcaire, invited lecturer on ‘Mobilization for LGBTQI+ rights’, Master on Social and Cultural Psychiatry, University of Coimbra.
Knowledge Exchange Workshops (23 February 2021)
The Portuguese team conducted two KEWs with stakeholders from AMPLOS, Casa Qui, Clube Safo, ILGA Portugal, Opus Diversidades and PATH Coimbra. These meetings aimed at sharing knowledge, learning from those who better know the challenges faced by LGBTQI+ people and adjusting strategies for some of the project’s plans in the forthcoming months.
Life course inequalities for LGBTQI+ - impacts on health (4 February 2021)
Rita Alcaire, invited lecturer on ‘Life course inequalities for LGBTQI+ - impacts on health’, Maternal and Obstetric Health Nursing, Nursing School of Coimbra.
Sexual diversity, pathologization and human rights (16 January 2021)
Rita Alcaire, invited lecturer on ‘Sexual diversity, pathologization and human rights’, Master on Social and Cultural Psychiatry, University of Coimbra.
CILIA England presentation at DIAL workshop (3rd December 2020)
Matt Hall and Andrew King presented at the DIAL Workshop about institutional influences on inequalities across the life-course. Matt and Andrew’s presentation was called ‘LGBTQI Workplace Inequalities: An exploration using agent-based modelling’.
PT-NAG Meeting (19 November 2020)
The Portuguese team presented the preliminary results of the project and NAG members shared reflections on these results as well as on the newsletter produced in October. Disclosure strategies focused on WP5 were also discussed.
Framing Ageing Webinar – Workshop 1 (27 October 2020)
Andrew gave a presentation at this online workshop entitled “Coming far, getting somewhere? The current concerns and future challenges facing older LGTB+ people”. The presentation drew on work Andrew had co-authored with Professor Kathryn Almack, University of Hertfordshire, but also included his reflections on more recent themes emerging from the findings of the CILIA-LGBTQI+ England project.
Wellcome Trust Generations Network (online) (10 September 2020)
Matthew and Andrew gave a presentation at this interdisciplinary network of academics entitled, “Queering Generations – Observations from LGBTQI+ Lives England interviews”.
DIAL Summer School, Turku (online) (17-19 August 2020)
Sait gave a presentation based on the soon to be published article ‘Job Satisfaction and Sexual Orientation in Britain’.
Covid-19 – Reframing Ageing (online webinar) (12 June 2020)
Andrew spoke at this online event attended by an international audience of over 120 people. Andrew’s presentation focused on how contemporary representations of COVID-19 in the UK have side-lined older LGBT+ people, reproducing cisheteronormative tropes around ageing and instituting a chrononormative view of the life course.
There and back again: An exploration through 50 years of LGBT+ activism (18 February 2020)
Hosted at the University of Strathclyde.
East Midlands Housing LIN, Birmingham (6 November 2019)
Andrew was invited to give a talk to health, housing and social care providers about the challenges faced by LGBT people in relation to housing. Andrew spoke about the CILIA-LGBTQI+ project too, asking people to help spread the call for participants and why taking an intersectional life course approach to LGBTQI+ research is important.
Seminar: Anti-gender policies and de-democratization in Latin America - exploring connections with Southern Europe, by Sonia Correa (31 October 2019)
Sonia Correa, head of the Sexuality Policy Watch, gave a talk on the anti-gender turn and its impacts on democracy.
Seminar: Representations of Brazilian Transfeminism and Education (15th July 2019)
Seminar with dance and body studies scholar and teacher Adriana Gehres. Gehres discussed experiences that seek to produce intersections between bodies, dance and youth cultures developed by teachers in Brazil. Reflections both on body and on dance in education were thought from different points of view, namely from alternative youth culture musical phenomena and their subversive potential.
Thanet 50+ LGBT Group, Kent (27 June 2019)
Andrew was invited to give a talk about Older LGBT people and their concerns about housing. Andrew also spoke about the CILIA-LGBTQI+ project and asked if anyone would like to participate.
Seminar: Intersexuality: self-determination, medical power and activism (14 May 2019)
Coorganized with SHARP Talks. Ana Lúcia Santos, CILIA Researcher, and intersex activist Santiago Mbanda Lima from Ação Pela Identidade Api discussed the current status of intersex politics in Southern Europe and beyond.
From Section 28 to LGBTQI+ Inclusions (1 May 2019)
Hosted at the University of Strathclyde.
Focus on LGBTIQ Seniors Conference, Amsterdam (26 April 2019)
Andrew was invited to give a keynote talk at the pan-European ‘Focus on LGBTIQ Seniors’ conference in Amsterdam. Andrew talked about the unique challenges faced by older LGBTQI+ people as they get older. The conference was attended by an international audience of over 150 LGBTQI+ people and community organisations, plus a few academics. Andrew was able to share some of the initial findings of the literature and survey mapping undertaken by the CILIA-LGBTQI+ England team, especially the lack of studies about ageing and intersex people.
Watch a video about the conference
Seminar: Structural dimensions and anti-gender trajectories in Latin America: the case of Ecuador (21 March 2019)
Queer and gender studies researcher Maria Amélia Viteri focused on surveillance mechanisms and hate speech against "gender ideology". Drawing from various contexts in Latin America, the researcher offered a genealogy of anti-gender discourses, their political actions and strategies, as well as resistance strategies.
1st LGBTQI+ Lives Scotland Advisory Group Meeting: Process and practice of ‘doing’ intersectionality (28 January 2019)
Comparing intersectional lifecourse (in)equalities among LGBTQI+ people in four European countries.
1-day Knowledge Exchange Workshop: Queer methodology / queering methodologies (15 January 2019)
Co-organised by the CILIA LGBTQI+ project, the INTIMATE project and the Human Rights in Contemporary Societies Doctoral Programme. Presentations centred on the dialogue between methodology and queer studies based on research experiences on gender, sexuality and the body in Brazil, Spain, England, Italy and Portugal.
Seminar: LGBTphobia and suicide among LGBT youth: tools for analysis and intervention, by Yasmin Cassetari (4 December 2018)
According to the WHO, suicide is the second leading cause of death in people between 15 and 29 years old. Based on this information, the CILIA LGBTQI+ team in Portugal co-organized a workshop with Yasmin Cassetari with a focus on combating homophobia and transphobia as triggering factors.
DIAL workshop on labour market inequalities, Turku (15-16 November 2018)
We were delighted to make two presentations at the recent DIAL workshop on labour market inequalities at the University of Turku, Finland. Andrew, Peter and Sait, from the England team, outlined how agent-based modelling is currently being used on the CILIA-LGBTQI+ project to think about the relationship between different levels of LGBTQ+ workplace inclusivity and career progression. Cristina and Rita, from the CILIA-LGBTQI+ Portugal team, provided a thought-provoking presentation on the heterocisnormative glass ceiling, using studies they’ve identified from their literature and survey reviews.
1st LGBTQI+ Lives Portugal Advisory Group Meeting Meeting (13 November 2018)
Held at the Centre for Social Studies (Coimbra, Portugal). In addition to the presentation of the project, important aspects related to knowledge sharing, communication and image, and dissemination strategies through networks inside and outside the academy were discussed.