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Comparing Intersectional Life Course Inequalities amongst LGBTQI+ Citizens in Four European Countries (CILIA-LGBTQI+ study)

Start date

March 2018

End date

September 2021

About 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).

Read the executive summary (PDF)

Countries

Additional information, including events, podcasts, publications, videos and working papers, can be found on our individual country websites.

Funders

Stay connected

@LGBTQILives

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Pls RT - important new global study on ageing, health and service needs of #LGBTQ+ people 👇 https://t.co/tZ8OR3WpBw
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New publication on right-wing sexual politics drawing on @LGBTQILives research in Portugal. Enjoy! 👇🏾 https://t.co/HwbeNv4POF
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We are excited to be joining the @dial_research Final Conference today and tomorrow. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ https://t.co/7EE1bG0ciP

Team

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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:

  1. Ana Cristina Santos, ‘Diversity and care relationships in LGBTQI+ people over 60’;
  2. Ana Lúcia Santos, ‘Precariousness and resilience: impacts of family and work discrimination for LGBTQ young adults’;
  3. 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”.

Workshop summary (PDF)

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.

Watch the webinar 

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. 

Watch the talk

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.

Watch the seminar

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.

Watch the seminar

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. 

Watch the seminar

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.

Visit the website

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.

Contact us

  • Email:  cilia@surrey.ac.uk