The football world cup this year is being held in Qatar, and the event has drawn attention to the anti-LGBTQ laws in the country. Such laws prompt many lesbian, gay, and bisexual people to leave their homeland in search of more favorable environs. Research from UC Riverside reveals, however, that such migrations don’t always result in people moving to places with any more acceptance than those left behind.

“This project came about from popular ideas about how people migrate throughout the US,” the researchers explain. “We were curious to learn if LGB people migrate based on gay friendliness. For example, when they come out do they move to a gay-friendly city if they don’t already live in one? We also wondered if feelings about sexuality influenced migration for straight people.”

Safe migration

The researchers conducted a couple of studies to examine these questions. For instance, one involved collecting data on around 1,300,000 US residents, each of whom had completed a survey about migration. This revealed that gay men and lesbians were, understandably, more likely to leave places that were unfriendly towards homosexuality. What was interesting, however, is that they didn’t appear to move to places that were themselves more friendly.

A second study then asked volunteers to view a range of images taken from Google Street View from 15 cities across the United States. The images reflected gay culture in some way or gay communities in those cities, or they viewed similar images that didn’t reflect gay culture in those cities.

The volunteers were asked how likely they would be to move to the places shown in each picture, as well as whether they would feel any sense of belonging in each place, and also whether they thought gay or straight people would be likely to spend time there.

The results showed that LGB participants usually wanted to move to places with a greater perceived gay culture, with straight participants doing similarly to places with more of a straight culture, but this was only generally so when they preferred straight people to gay people. What is perhaps most interesting, however, is the disconnect between the preferences stated by LGB volunteers, and actual migration patterns.

“One possible interpretation of these findings is that it is easier to leave a bad place than it is to end up in a good place,” the authors explain. “LGB people might hypothetically prefer to live in a gay-friendly place but real-world constraints, such as employment or affordable housing, might limit their choices.”

The right fit

While there was a general desire among both gay and straight people to live in places that matched their sexual orientation, or indeed their feelings about sexuality, there were nonetheless some differences that stood out.

For instance, among lesbians and gay men with pro-gay feelings, there was a strong desire to move to places that were seen as friendly towards homosexuality. By contrast, gay and bisexual men who had more pro-straight feelings were less interested in the perceived gay or straight culture of a place.

“One of the interesting contributions of this project is that we separate identity from feelings, and examine when the two compete, like when a gay person internalizes homophobia,” the authors conclude. “It turns out that gay people are leaving places that aren’t friendly to them and going places that they think might be more friendly, even if their own feelings toward gay people are not favorable.”