In this article, I want to illuminate a more diverse image of lesbian lives in the Nordic region than what is often assumed through Western-centric notions of the global queer community and of "out and proud" visibility. Moving beyond dichotomous divisions between visibility and invisibility, I approach in/visibility as an ambivalent, ambiguous, and performative concept. My fieldwork data illuminate that non-heterosexual migrant women in this context do not primarily subscribe to a so-called "Western" visibility paradigm. I analyze how non-heterosexual migrant women, primarily Muslim, exercise ownership of their sexual identities and how they negotiate the degree to which their romantic and sexual relations become-or do not-points of discussion. As these women were involved in multi-layered negotiations in relation to their families, queer communities, and nations, their positionings in relation to the visibility paradigm differed. However, on a general level, their positionings could be interpreted as simultaneously in and out of the closet, or neither in nor out. These ambivalences and ambiguities, I suggest, illuminate the need to challenge the visibility/invisibility divide, and highlight the importance of paying attention to multiple, context-specific, and intersecting forms of power. Drawing on these discussions, I propose the need to rethink notions of community, family, and home within a framework of queer livability.
Keywords: Lesbian; Muslim; Nordic region; in/visibility; migrant; women.