Amy Steinbugler is a professor of Sociology at Dickinson College.

Sexuality scholars largely neglect interracial intimacy in the United States as a site worthy of sustained empirical research. Consequently, monoraciality is not adequately problematized or identified as a racial prerequisite to fundamental heterosexual privileges. Further, by implicitly constructing same-sex couples as monoracial, scholars fail to consider how heterosexuality and White supremacy together saturate public spaces to render queer interraciality profoundly invisible. In this essay I critique the monoracial bias of sexuality research by analyzing interracial narratives on the topic of visibility. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with four heterosexual and four same-sex interracial couples, I argue that for interracial partners a paradoxical tension surrounds visibility. Though couples may seek public affirmation of intimate relationships, for both heterosexual and queer interracial couples, public recognition risks harassment or violence.

Steinbugler, Amy C. Visibility as Privilege and Danger: Heterosexual and Same-Sex Interracial Intimacy in the 21st Century. Sexualities 8, no. 4 (2005): 425-443. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460705056618

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