Hegemonic or Queer? A Comparative Analysis of Five LGBTQIA/Disability Intersectional Social Movement Organizations

This article explores how social movement organizations (SMOs) that seek to address issues faced by people who identify as both LGBTQ+ and disabled engage in boundary work. This article answers the research question: How do intersectional LGBTQ+/disability social movement groups position themselves and construct collective identity and collective consciousness? Specifically, this article explores the degree to which these organizations stress sameness and/or difference in relation to the dominant group by engaging in boundary work and establishing collective identity and collective consciousness. By exploring how these groups engage in practices of inclusion and exclusion related to the construction of boundaries, I examine how the stressing of sameness and/or difference informs SMO’s position in relation to and use of queer/crip or hegemonic discourses. By employing narrative analysis and virtual ethnography, I examine five SMOs’ online presence via their webpages and web spaces via the texts and images displayed. The data in this study show that groups that use hegemonic discourses frequently suppress difference, while those that use queer discourses celebrate difference