‘Did queer Muslims even exist?’–racialised grids of intelligibility in Swedish LGBTQ contexts

Abstract

This article explores racialised grids of intelligibility around gender identity and sexuality in white Swedish LGBTQ contexts. By analysing personal stories shared on a separatist Instagram account by and for LGBTQ people racialised as non-white and/or Muslim, the article identifies some of the predominant narratives through which they become intelligible, both to other people and to themselves. Four frameworks are particularly recurring: the notion of them being victims of a ‘hateful other’, strong expectations to come out, exotification and tokenism (both sexualised and otherwise), and a general lack of representation. I argue that all of these revolve around notions of LGBTQ people racialised as non-white and/or Muslim as never quite belonging and thus never quite recognisable. They are instead frequently situated between white, gender-equal and LGBTQ-friendly ‘Swedishness’ and threatening, LGBTQ-phobic racialised ‘others’, made intelligible only in relation to either of these.