The patterns of descriptive and substantive representation of minority sexual orientation and gender identity in European parliaments

This paper presents findings from the InclusiveParl project, which aims at empirically apprehending the presence of historically under-represented social categories in parliamentary assemblies. Among them, we provide a comprehensive and intersectional approach to the comparative and longitudinal empirical analysis of 'visible presence' of LGBTI+ minorities in four European countries with various electoral systems and approaches to gender quotas. This exhaustive and holistic approach to descriptive parliamentary representation allows us to better understand whether systematic and common patterns of inclusivity (or biases) emerge. Through the analysis of novel biographical datasets of national MPs (late 2000s to late 2010s) in France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, this paper addresses the following questions: To what extent are sexual and gender minorities politically represented? Are representation patterns consistent across countries? To answer them, we first examine certain intersections (more specifically between minority sexual orientation and gender identities, and working class belonging, or ethnic and migrant background) and their changes across legislative terms and countries, to seize commonalities and divergences of inclusion and exclusion across them (e.g., in terms of party strategies, of gendered visibility biases and stigma, and candidate recruitment pathways). Secondly, we study the connections between LGBTI+ descriptive and substantive representation in the specific case of France, based on the analysis of MPs' written questions in the National Assembly during the most recent legislatures as well as an analysis of MPs' parliamentary activities (e.g., committee and investigation group memberships).