Diasporic Armenian Belonging as Already Queer and Multiple

This article investigates diasporic Armenian belonging as, by default, queer, multiple, and contesting hegemonic accounts that define Armenianness in terms of heteroreproductive and ethnonationalist representational economies. Based on extensive ethnographic research in the United States, the analysis situates Armenian diasporicity within queer diaspora studies, interrogating how collective trauma, racialization, sexual normativity, and migratory trajectories shape experiences of inclusion and exclusion. By centering life histories and affective bonds, the article highlights the dynamic and situational nature of diasporic Armenianness, revealing a multiplicity of homes, affiliations, and relationalities that unsettle fixed notions of origin and belonging. In so doing, it makes an important contribution to a broader understanding of diasporic belonging and calls for embracing the non-monumental queerness of diasporic Armenianness, as it allows us to tap into the queer possibility of forging more livable lives within, across, and beyond Armenian communities.