Methods of studying LGBT experiences in the situation of invisibility: from African countries to Uzbekistan

ABSTRACT

This article explores contexts where homosexuality is criminalized and looks at the methods which scholars use to study LGBT+ experiences there. It is based on an extensive literature review which demonstrates the range of methods employed in academic articles, presenting results from various countries that criminalize LGBT+ sexualities. Two research topics appear most prominently: HIV and LGBT+ activism. The article then turns to a critical analysis of one such study conducted in Uzbekistan. I argue that more creative use of applied research can help shed light on everyday queer experiences under the conditions of invisibility. The article considers an online survey of men who have sex with men in relation to their awareness of HIV issues. I review the opportunities presented by this study: the glimpse into everyday practices of LGBT+ communities in a troubled place.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBT+
• Uzbekistan
• Africa
• Middle East
• Asia; criminalization of homosexuality

Acknowledgements

Part of this study is based on empirical research conducted by a group of anonymous activists from Uzbekistan and is used here with their permission. The author thanks the Eurasian Coalition for Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity (ECOM) for providing access and permission for the research. I am grateful to the journal’s peer reviewers and editors for their work and patience.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In addition to ILGA’s data, Constitutional Courts in Barbados, Singapore, and the High Court of St Kitts and Nevis decriminalized homosexuality in 2022.

2 The papers I reviewed and understood were written in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese, or had an English abstract (this concerns a few papers in Persian which I do not speak and judged exclusively from the abstracts). I did not encounter papers in other languages, even though there might be many outside of the scope of UCD’s subscriptions.

3 My translation from Russian in which the original report is published. All quotations further are translated from Russian in which I found the originals.

4 The survey was completely anonymised, so all names are created specifically for this article and have nothing to do with the actual names of respondents.