Intersectional and Transnational Alliances during Times of Crisis: Solidarities in the European LGBT Movement

This paper explores European LGBT organizations’ cross-movement solidarities and its orientation toward intersectionality in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. I explore two of the overarching questions that motivate this panel: How inclusive and intersectional is the European LGBT movement in its claims and its participants? What types of cross-organizational and cross-movement alliances exist, and how are they facilitated? Additionally, I ask: How has the financial crisis affected the intersectional consciousness of the movement, and how has it changed the nature of coalitional building work? To gain leverage on these broad questions of solidarity, I collected survey data that specifically addressed intersectionality and cross-movement alliances. The findings suggest that (1) the movement seeks to be more inclusive than it actually is on the ground, where middle-upper class gay men still dominate decision-making procedures, (2) cross-organizational and cross-movement alliances are frequent, but they are context-specific and predominantly facilitated by international organizations and European institutions, and (3) financial crisis has paradoxically benefited the movement’s intersectional consciousness and alliances by generating a sense of shared threat and encouraging cooperation for access to limited resources.