Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Anthropology Department, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Though South Asians are one of the largest and fastest growing immigrant groups in the United States (Rico, 2023; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2020), their experiences are understudied and often only included within the larger umbrella of Asian and Asian American research (Sandil et al., 2015). Furthermore, there is a dearth of research on the experiences of Queer South Asians as well on the experiences of South Asian immigrants and those on non-immigrant visas in the United States. The present study attempts to address this gap by exploring the experiences of South Asian bisexual+ women living in the United States with regard to the impact of their experiences of discrimination and exclusion within LGBTQ+ and South Asian communities. Using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR), the study analyzed data from 12 bisexual+ cisgender South Asian women living in the United States. The interview investigated their experiences of discrimination within South Asia as well as the LGBTQ+ community and the general public in the United States, examined their relationship with their identity and experiences of connectedness and exclusion within these communities, and explored their use of mental health services as well as their emotional responses and coping strategies to discriminatory experiences. The results revealed that experiences of discrimination, invalidation, and invisibilization affected participants’ wellbeing by contributing to increased distress, feelings of exclusion, and a lack of belonging within these communities. The implications of the results for policy, theory, and practice are presented, and include the promotion of multicultural competence and responsiveness in mental health practitioners and increased awareness to the experiences of an understudied population.