I was brought up in a very religious household and I was surrounded by very religious family members. I was in church every Sunday morning listening to the homily the priest had for that day and celebrating Christmas every year by praying the novena. At the age of 7, I started to question what the church was preaching. As you can imagine this resulted in numerous arguments that would involve my parents or anyone that did not agree with what I was saying. Was I just being a curious child or was I being a smart ass? I honestly didn’t know. All I knew at the time was that there was some things I did not agree with. What I do know now is that the years that followed would change my life forever.
A few months after my 10th birthday, a family member from my family came out. Someone from my Catholic family came out identifying as gay, someone I loved so much, someone I grew up with. It was this that allowed me to personally see how their coming out not only impacted our family but also played a role in the way he was treated in the parish he grew up in. I learned that queer and of color mean something different. I saw intersectionality up close.
In “Intersectionality as Method: A Note” by Catherine A. Mackinnon, Mackinnon describes intersectionality as being a method that brings the experience of discrimination certain people experience into awareness. She makes this point extremely apparent when she refers to the case of Dafro Jefferies. In the case of Jefferies v. Harris, Jefferies sues the workplace due to discrimination against her based on her sex and race. This discrimination caused a promotion to be violated. The workplace Jefferies worked for denied any discrimination due to the fact that they hired both African Americans and women. However, when the case is closely examined we come to realize that only the men were black while the women who worked in the front were white. There is more to discrimination that just isolated categories, and we have to realize that by becoming aware of the many other categories people are discriminated against. It also helps us realize that there is more than one issue to be aware of.
My definition to intersectionality is similar to the way Mackinnon defines intersectionality. I see intersectionality as social categorizations that are used to identify a person or describe a person by society and ultimately put them in a specific box that in most cases bring them to a disadvantage. Take for example the way I would be categorized. Not only am I a female but I am Latina, straight, cisgender, and Catholic. At the end of the day I may be discriminated against either by my race, sex, gender or religion. Not only would I be discriminated against but I would be placed under a specific stereotype. Take into consideration being labeled or identifying as Latina. Many would automatically associate this with a sassy women or a person with little to no English. Not only would I be placed in this specific box and discriminated/ stereotyped against, but I would also become part of a hierarchy, which as Mackinnon mentions is white-male dominated. Since society is white-male dominated, I would not benefit and instead I would have disadvantages within society.
Intersectionality relates to my research in the sense that sexuality, gender, and religion all play an important role. Since part of my research focuses on LGBTQ Catholics, the issue of sexuality comes into play, since to be accepted as part of the Catholic religion one cannot be ‘queer’ or identify as LGBTQ. Identifying as part of the LGBTQ community in most cases is seen as a sin and not acceptable in this community. Not only is sexuality and gender two social categorizations to think about, there is also race. Those parents who are considered/ identify as minorities are reported to have a hard time accepting their child who identifies as LGBTQ. On top of that, those who identify as both LGBTQ and as part of a minority group tend to have a harder time accepting their own identity. In the research, we see people have had a hard time with their multiple identities in a world where one of their identities is not accepted. My cousin's story shows how he was rejected and socially isolated for being gay in a Catholic parish. Not being accepted for being Latinx, Catholic, and LGBTQ can have a negative influence in an individual's life.