Queering friendship. Rethinking intimacy from a queer relational perspective.

This study aims to investigate lived experiences and meanings of friendship among queer people in Sweden. Through an interpretative approach based on a relational ontology, it explores how queer people experience and challenge different kinds of normativities in their intimate life. Relationships are centred rather than subjects, and friendship is questioned from a queer theoretical angle as a relational category and framework for intimate relationships. A mixed-method design combining ethnography, social network analysis and in-depth interviews generated rich data on friendship nar ratives and their intertwining with identity, intimacy and relationality. The thematic narrative analysis highlighted how participants construct friendship and intimacy as queer fields in a variety of ways, drawing on a wide and diverse nar rative repertoire. Some recurrent narratives interlacing identity and relationality, such as neuroqueerness, are discussed in depth. In conclusion, a conceptual framework for theorising queer intimacies is proposed.