The Silenced Minority: Using the Concept of Political Efficacy to Explain LGBTQ Patterns of Political Participation in a Politically Homophobic Context

Previous research suggests that political efficacy can explain the relationship between political homophobia and political participation, since it captures the behavioural implications of misaligned demands in relation to state outcome. This thesis investigates whether political efficacy can explain LGBTQ patterns of political participation in a politically homophobic context, which remains unexamined by existent research. Using Uganda as a most-likely case, we hypothesised that LGBTQ individuals would view the state as unresponsive to their demands, and therefore be more oriented towards non-electoral participation than electoral participation. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 10 LGBTQ Ugandans, we used thematic content analysis to compare patterned reasons for forms of participation with patterned explanations for levels of efficacy. Our findings suggest that LGBTQ Ugandans have misaligned demands in relation to state outcome and pursue non-electoral participation to challenge political decisions. Meanwhile, electoral participation remained varied. Voter abstention was justified by macro-level factors beyond political homophobia, such as barriers introduced by the repressive political context. Therefore, political efficacy could not fully explain LGBTQ patterns of political participation. Future research should incorporate collective dimensions of political efficacy to explain LGBTQ participation in homophobic contexts, and further explore the benefits of measuring the concept with a qualitative approach.