ABSTRACT

There is a substantial South Asian diasporic population in the United Kingdom, including, in particular, second- and third-generation immigrants who have made their homes in Britain and who may continue to have strong transnational affiliations. Little is known about British South Asian women who are non-heterosexual. This chapter provides analysis based on a qualitative research project conducted with lesbian, bisexual and queer British South Asian cisgender women from a range of ethnic, faith and geographical backgrounds. The research utilised a critical narrative approach in order to gain an in-depth insight into processes of identity construction, the management of different cultural pressures, gendered elements, consumerism and cosmopolitanism and negotiations of global North/South relations. Intersectionality theory is used as a tool in helping illuminate both agentic processes and structural forces of discrimination as experienced by the women who contributed to the study. The chapter helps to address the deficit in transnational intersectionality studies.