Secrecy is often the norm, but the field was familiar to us, through previous visits and research projects.” “As two queer researchers, we were able to enter the worlds of relatively privileged Western gay expatriates. And taboo subjects are very often under-researched, sometimes because people have a hard time gaining access, gaining that trust, but also because, even if people gain that access, there could be significant repercussions for themselves as researchers, or for the people who are the research participants. Dr Centner explains: “It's an illegal, or criminalised, identity and set of behaviours and practices, so in a very general sense, it's a taboo.
How can a sense of belonging be forged in a setting where one’s existence is forbidden? That is the question that LSE’s Dr Centner and his co-author Harvard’s Manoel Pereira Neto explore in their groundbreaking research into Dubai’s expatriate gay men’s nightlife.īut it was not an easy topic to research.
