Background: This study brings lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (trans), and queer (LGBTQ+) populations into scholarly discourse related to precarious employment through a political economy of queer struggle.
Methods: Drawing on narrative inquiry, 20 gay, bisexual, and queer men shared stories of precarious employment that were analyzed using Polkinghorne's narrative analysis.
Results: Results tell an overarching narrative in three parts that follow the trajectory of participants' early life experiences, entering the labor market and being precariously employed. Part 1: Devaluation of LGBTQ+ identities and adverse life experiences impacted participants' abilities to plan their careers and complete postsecondary education. Part 2: Participants experienced restricted opportunities due to safety concerns and learned to navigate white, cis, straight, Canadian ideals that are valued in the labor market. Part 3: Participants were without protections to respond to hostile treatment for fear of losing their employment.
Conclusions: These stories of precarious employment illustrate unique ways that LGBTQ+ people might be particularly susceptible to exploitative labor markets.
Keywords: LGBTQ; critical political economy; economic insecurity; economic justice; labor; narrative inquiry; precarious employment; qualitative methods; queer political economy; sexual minority.
© 2024 The Authors. American Journal of Industrial Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.