| Abstract | Beginning with the sociological literature on role strain and leading up to the literature on intersectionality, this paper traces the analysis of coexisting identities and how they can either serve as barriers or conduits to social change. Early writings on role strain may seem to contradict some of the later writings about how multiple forms of oppression affect people differently. How do social movement actors today make sense of this multiplicity of identities? While relying on these two bodies of literature--role strain and intersectionality--this paper explores how leaders within lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) social movements talk about their racial and sexual identities. In-depth interviews and focus group sessions were conducted with LGBT leaders of color (n=55) in order to understand how the intersectional imagination operates in both personal and collective levels. Findings reveal that in placing their own racial identity at the center, research participants talked about how experiences of racism, homophobia, and discrimination within LGBT populations and within their own respective racial group affected their identities and their activism. Participants also talked about how their racial identities contributed to such things as increased visibility, ease of access to communities of color, and other such enabling effects. |
