Towards a Situated Understanding of Vulnerability — An Analysis of Ugandan LGBT+ Exposure to Hate Crimes in Digital Spaces

ABSTRACT

This study maps Uganda LGBT+ experiences of online hate crime and analyzes how preexisting vulnerability morph in digital spaces. Based on field notes, workshop material, and interviews with 13 LGBT+ individuals, the study finds that digital presences in contexts where users are vulnerable due to state—sanctioned discrimination and social exclusion, digital arenas exacerbate users’ vulnerability to hate crimes through their digital footprints. The longing for community and intimacy, together with in some cases an unfamiliarity with how digital media can be misused, appear to facilitate both the ideologically driven perpetrators hunting LGBT+, and Crime passionnel, where an (ex)partner miscalculates the implications of publishing private material. This study thus illustrates how digital spaces are not safe(r) spaces, where LGBT+ are free to playfully explore sexual orientation and gender non-conformity, away from society’s abhorring gaze. Furthermore, contrary to what could be expected, LGBT+ individuals’ vulnerability was most often not the result of an outside intruder hunting LGBT+ online. The article reiterates the importance of a situated approach, acknowledging the environmental influences when studying and addressing LGBT+ vulnerabilities in digital spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBT+
• Uganda
• homophobia
• situatedness
• vulnerability
• digital literacy

Acknowledgments

The author(s) would like to acknowledge that the research is the result of the Swedish Institute’s Creative Force grant. Our partner organization was awarded the grant in 2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Insitute [Creative Force].