Pushed to the sidelines: LGBTIQ+ cancer carers

This chapter examines the experiences of LGBTIQ+ individuals who provide informal care to partners, chosen family, and community members with cancer, drawing on insights from 129 carers who participated in the Out with Cancer Study. It highlights how these carers play vital yet often unrecognised roles in cancer care, navigating multiple layers of invisibility, exclusion, and systemic inequality within healthcare and support services. Participants described their caring relationships as deeply meaningful but often marked by marginalisation. Many encountered structural and interpersonal barriers in clinical settings, where assumptions about heteronormative kinship and a lack of understanding of diverse family structures led to misrecognition, exclusion from decision-making, or denial of their role as legitimate carers. These experiences were particularly acute for partners in same-gender relationships, trans carers, and those supporting chosen family or friends rather than legal or biological relatives. The chapter explores how cultural stigma, past experiences of discrimination, and institutional oversight contributed to emotional and practical challenges for LGBTIQ+ carers, including isolation, distress, and a lack of access to appropriate information and support. Despite these barriers, participants showed resilience and commitment, often drawing on queer networks, community solidarity, and activist strategies to navigate care roles. The invisibility of LGBTIQ+ carers is not simply an oversight; it reflects the normative assumptions embedded in health and social care systems. Addressing this requires policy, practice, and research frameworks that explicitly acknowledge and support LGBTIQ+ carers, including recognition of diverse relationships, culturally safe care settings, and affirming services. Highlighting the essential role of LGBTIQ+ carers, the chapter advocates for more inclusive and equitable models of cancer care that value and support carers across all genders, sexualities, and relationship structures.