A lesbian, gay and bisexual migration tale: On the role of intimate citizenship for transforming sexual subjectivities

Abstract

This study examines the role of migrations for sexual subjectivities, based on biographic narrative interviews with CEE LGB migrants married or raising children with a same-sex partner in Belgium and the Netherlands. Migrants’ experiences highlight the salience of the migration-as-liberation with the empowering role of new beginnings in LGB-protective countries. At the same time, migrants’ stories also challenge this liberation tale, especially when situated within transnational family relations. In this context, migration and post-migration junctures differently impact sexual subjectivities, demonstrating fragmentations and non-linearity, and highlighting how migrations are only potentially transformative, with an important role played by full access to intimate citizenship.