Towards a conceptual model of queer social safety: insights from LGBTQ+ narratives of safety and unsafety

Social safety has recently emerged as an important framework for understanding how environments influence health and well-being, yet it remains underexplored within LGBTQ+ research. This study examined LGBTQ+ individuals' experiences of social safety and social unsafety and developed an empirically grounded conceptualisation of queer social safety. Ninety-seven LGBTQ+ adults living in Italy responded to two open-ended questions regarding experiences of social safety and social unsafety. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and used to develop a conceptual model of queer social safety. Four interrelated themes were identified: (1) governability of visibility; (2) habitability of social spaces; (3) relational legitimation between inclusivity and hostility; and (4) subjective experiences and outcomes of social safety/unsafety. Findings suggest that queer social safety is constructed through ongoing processes of meaning-making and appraisal in which relational and contextual experiences are integrated into evaluations of recognition, legitimacy, belonging and protection. The process-oriented conceptual model we developed from our work explains how these appraisal processes give rise to distinct patterns of agency and identity pride, vigilance and self-regulation, or withdrawal and internalised stigma, while identifying recognition as a key relational process underpinning the psychological construction of queer social safety.