‘Othering’ is the word used to describe treating people with perceived differences as generally inferior to the group you belong to.
“Being a queer person of colour, I would have experienced forms of ‘othering’, not directly discrimination, but when I heard what some participants had faced, I was really, really taken aback by it.” “One thing that really struck me was the level of discrimination based on appearance,” adds Thomas, who has been living in Cork for the past four years. “Interestingly, every participant who had experienced racialisation and marginalisation based on their heritage and appearance had not been subjected to the same degree of queerphobia or homophobia,” says Thomas. Iris Aghedo, researcher Thomas Heising, Leo O’Mahony, and Ailsa Spindler, Gay Project Co-ordinator, at the launch of the Crossroads Report.
It looks at the double discrimination of being both a person of colour and GBTQ+. He also noted that ‘some participants expressed difficulty relating to the drinking culture in Cork’s GBTQ+ nightlife.’Ĭrossroads offers us a contemporary look at the lived experiences of, and attitudes towards, racialisation and discrimination of GBTQ+ people of colour living in Cork.