Exploring the Motivation behind Sexuality-Driven Political Participation in an Increasingly Undemocratic Context

Abstract: Sexuality-driven political participation refers to the political engagement of people of sexual minorities. While progress has been made in understanding the motivation behind their political participation, this study seeks to address the limitations of the existing literature which are designed explicitly to work in democratic contexts where engagement can bear fruit and for mostly quantitative inquiries which imply homogeneity and fail to map out the heterogeneity in the meanings of sexual minorities’ political participation. To fill these gaps, this thesis aims to answer the following question: how do sexual minorities make sense of their political participation in an increasingly undemocratic context? To explore the plurality of meanings that sexual minorities attach to their political participation in a context where democracy is under threat and homophobia is persistent, I conducted in-depth individual interviews and focus groups with 16 politically active LGBT+ citizens in Hungary. Through qualitative meaning-centred content analysis and with the help of deductively developed analytical lenses, I found that while existing theories can explain to a great degree the meanings that sexual minorities attached to their political participation in increasingly undemocratic contexts, this thesis also sheds light on the multifaceted drivers of political engagement. This includes not solely social identity and discrimination but also a broader pursuit of justice, civil liberties, democracy, and empathy. Overall, the paper makes an important contribution to a more in-depth understanding of the political participation of LGBT+ citizens, highlighting the complex and multifaceted motivations behind their engagement.