Intersectionality and LGBT+ Discrimination: Paradigms, Concepts and Indicators

Abstract

This article intends to investigate the connections between intersectionality, inequalities and discrimination, and LGBT+ studies. Firstly, the question arises whether the "intersectional" approach is configured as a "paradigm", distinctive from the feminist one, considering three levels of a paradigm: (a) Epistemology and the relations linking knowledge to politics; (b) Methodology and (c) Research Methods. Starting from the classification introduced by McCall (2005) between anti-categorical, intra-categorical and inter-categorical complexity, we focus on 1) how this approach to intersectionality can be translated into research practice (for example, in terms of techniques, concepts and indicators), 2) the challenges that quantitative approaches pose to intersectionality, and 3) the methods of operationally defining and detecting intersectional discriminations. Lastly, we consider possible contaminations, from a methodological point of view, between the intersectional approach and Queer studies.

Keywords: intersectionality, discrimination, LGBT+, indicators, methods.