“My sexuality sort of complicates things”: community and support for Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer People in Lusaka

Abstract

This thesis explores how LBQ women and female-bodied non-binary people in Lusaka, Zambia access support and build community in a context where their sexual identity is criminalised by the state and denigrated by society and the church. This ethnographic research based on one-on-one interviews situates the six research participants’ gender identity and sexual orientation within broader discourses about Zambian nationhood, womanhood and heterosexuality. It investigates how the participants use a combination of digital counterpublics, in-person support and nightlife to form a nascent subcultural community.