Conservative ethnic minority LGTBQ+: Facing the challenge of intersectionality in an inhospitable environment

Abstract

AbstractLGBTQ+ suffer from intolerance everywhere, but in certain conservative minority communities, intolerance is especially high. This study explores how non‐minority organizations—government and nonprofit—might support minority LGBTQ+ individuals on the backdrop of tense majority‐minority relations. While the extension of external support responds to LGBTQ+ plight, it is also likely to provoke community backlash. Research is based on a qualitative case study, which includes document analysis and 17 in‐depth interviews focusing on the institutional support system addressing the plight of LGBTQ+ Palestinian citizens of Israel. The research suggests that an outside‐inside strategy could be effective: A range of services outside of Palestinian spaces is adapted/established to support individual LGBTQ+ and inside Palestinian towns gradual progress is achieved by training local public workers to work with LGBTQ+. This approach contrasts with bottom‐up and straightforward top‐down approaches to intervention.