标题
LGBT activism in Estonia: Identities, enactment and perceptions of LGBT people
摘要
This article explores how Estonian LGBT activists make sense of their own activism. We analyze the activists’ perceptions of their activism, their identities and how those identities are deployed for action. All of these are, in turn, situated in how activists understand the broader Estonian LGBT community, and Estonian society’s historico-politically complex relationship with activism as such. The article is theoretically grounded within the new social movement theories and theories of emergent LGBT and activist identities. The analyzed material consists of interviews, observations, documents and meeting notes gathered via ethnographic fieldwork with Estonian LGBT activists in 2012–2013. Pragmatic and iterative qualitative analysis revealed that the activists studied resist the activist identity, and perceive there to be a weak collective identity among the broader Estonian LGBT population. However, the lobbying for the Registered Partnership Law (passed in 2014) brought a shift in LGBT activists’ ways of enacting their identities and their perception of the possibility of LGBT activism in Estonia.
研究问题
本文探讨了爱沙尼亚LGBT活动家如何理解自身的行动主义。研究分析了活动家对其行动主义、身份认同以及这些身份如何被用于行动的认知，并将其置于活动家对更广泛的爱沙尼亚LGBT社区的理解，以及爱沙尼亚社会与行动主义之间复杂的历史政治关系的背景中
方法与数据
研究数据来自2012年5月至2013年11月进行的民族志田野调查，包括对15名爱沙尼亚LGBT活动家的访谈、对LGBT中心会议和活动的观察、非正式对话、媒体文本以及活动组织的会议记录和文件。访谈通过滚雪球抽样进行，受访者为23-35岁的年轻人，涵盖所有相关活动家和部分新兴活动家。访谈录音经转录后使用Nvivo 9.2软件进行开放式编码和轴心编码分析，并结合民族志观察、非正式对话和文本材料进行主题分析。参与观察在塔林OMA中心（LGBT青年主要活动场所）进行，涵盖正式会议、特别活动和非正式聚会。研究采用Sarah Tracy（2013）提出的实用迭代分析方法，在数据的涌现性解读与现有理论模型之间交替进行，既关注数据的自然呈现，也结合研究者的理论框架和文献背景进行分析。
研究发现
研究发现爱沙尼亚LGBT活动家认为LGBT群体集体认同较弱，主要因内在的同性恋恐惧症和社会被动性。活动家回避“活动家”标签，因其在爱沙尼亚文化中具有负面含义。《注册伴侣法》游说促使LGBT群体形成“共同敌人”，增强了集体认同。活动家采取非对抗性策略，通过教育和提升社会意识推动LGBT权利，认为这更适合爱沙尼亚的历史背景。