Polish Lgbts and Social Media in the Post-Brexit UK

Western mainstream media often perpetuate the myth of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as a homogenous region which is historically and essentially homophobic (‘long a stronghold of virulent homophobia’ [Washington Post], ‘Is LGBT Equality Out of Reach [in CEE]?’ [Huffington Post]). Similar arguments surfaced in the Brexit campaign. What is lost in such discourses are the experiences and perspectives of CEE LGBTs themselves. While in mainstream media CEE LGBTs remain nearly invisible, or are simply represented as victims of their ‘homophobic culture’, on social media (such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), they have a chance to produce their own content. Yet, at the same time, social media result in what scholars call a ‘context collapse’, that is, they bring together the audiences which offline normally remain separated, a potentially problematic situation for at least some LGBTs. In this paper, I will investigate the opportunities and challenges that social media pose to a specific group of CEE LGBTs, Poles who migrated to the UK after 2004, in a specific time and place, the post-Brexit UK. Drawing on my survey and interview data, I will address such questions as: How do Polish LGBTs in the UK use social media to produce their own representations and develop their own understandings of their experiences in the post-Brexit moment? How do they navigate through the media avoiding context collapse or using it for their advantage? and How do they negotiate their national, diasporic, gender and sexual identities in the specific cultural context and media ecology?