“When and Where [We] Enter…”? Intersectional Ideologies and Experiences in African American Support for LGBTQ+ Communities

Abstract

This article examines how intersectional ideologies and experiences of marginalization affect the extent to which African Americans support or oppose the marginalization of LGBTQ+ communities. We posit that awareness of the race-gender positionality of African American women, as well as the unique positionalities of other marginalized African American subgroups, is critical to understanding the conditions under which Black Americans embrace LGBTQ+ rights and communities. Using the Black respondent subsample of the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Study, we test the extent to which intersectional theories explain African American cross-group consciousness with LGBTQ+ persons and support for LGBTQ+ rights and communities. In doing so, we distinguish multiple mechanisms through which identity intersections affect African American1 political attitudes, and we find that, though intersecting marginalized identities can be critical to fomenting African Americans’ support for the rights and concerns of LGBTQ+ communities, not all intersections lead to a more inclusive Black politics.