Gender and sexual diversity in Europe

European countries have improved the legal inclusion of some people with minoritized gender and sexual identities over the past decades. The level of overt sexual stigma has dropped steadily in many countries, according to survey estimates. Yet, contemporary developments remind us that such developments can be easily reversed. As new measures of latent cis heterosexist attitudes develop, it becomes apparent that cis heterosexist stigma may not have changed in quality rather than in quantity. In light of the continuing cis heteronormativity in European societies, I examine persisting inequities of people with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer and inter* (LGBTQI*) identities in social networks, family relationships and on the labor market.Related to this, methodological challenges and their possible solutions regarding survey approaches to LGBTQI* people are central to my work. The challenges are manifold, e.g., developing adequate measurement instruments, designing sound sampling procedures and calculating survey weights. Therefore, my work includes the development of creative solutions to some of these issues. Moreover, I have a strong interest in mending the strained relationship between queer studies and quantitative research methods, which historically has produced – and often continues to produce – the very knowledge which perpetuates the oppression of LGBTQI* people.At the InFER, I work as a data manager in the DFG-funded project “Reconfiguration and Internalization of Social Structure (RISS)” by Daniela Grunow. The project aims to establish a multidimensional conceptualization of social-structural change and develop innovative empirical strategies to capture this complexity. The promise of this approach lies in the ability to build richer theories of how the social structure shapes individual and collective orientations.