Cross Border Queers: The Story of South Asian Migrants in the UK

The 1960s mark the beginning of an organised LGBTQ civil rights movement in the UK, as well as larger waves of migration to the UK, with those of South Asian descent arriving from India, Pakistan, Kenya and Uganda. However, there is little research on queer South Asians who arrived in the UK and how their experiences of racism, homophobia, and their transnational connections in South Asia, shaped their (inter)national experience of being queer.

This research addresses the theme of Borders in two senses: the real geographical borders crossed by sexual minorities to seek safer and more 'liveable lives' (Butler 2004), and the figurative borders crossed by sexual minorities who choose to 'come out' or identify as LGBTQ. The experience of queer South Asians has been marginalised in the study and representation of South Asian lives in the UK, which has often assumed the heteronormativity and homophobia of migrant communities. By focusing on networks of travel across borders (from straight to 'queer' and from national to transnational), this project will address the need to add the experience of queer migration to broaden an understanding of how social challenges such as racism and homophobia operate in concert to produce inequalities.

This research project is conducted as part of a British Academy Tackling UK’s International Challenges Grant (2019-2021) and is a collaboration between Dr Churnjeet Mahn (Reader, University of Strathclyde) and Dr Rohit K Dasgupta (Senior Lecturer, Loughborough University London). The study is conducted in collaboration with various organisations and charities in India and the United Kingdom. This is a 18-month project, with an end date of 2021.