To achieve this, this piece: i) briefly introduces the reader to the stigma concept, its impact on queer people, and how little is known about how stigma relates to queer intimacy ii) uses qualitative methods to explore the mechanisms by which stigma regulates queer intimacy and iii) discusses the potential ways a human rights approach may assist efforts to combat this inequity.īriefly, three mechanisms through which stigma regulates queer intimacy emerge from the qualitative data: surveillance (e.g., judgmental observation), containment (e.g., restricting queer intimacy to certain spaces), and violence (e.g., use of slurs, physical assault). This piece sets out to examine how intimacy for one group of people-queer people-is restricted and regulated in the United States by one prevalent and pervasive social process-stigma-and what can be done to ensure this population has equal opportunity to express intimacy and thus achieve full personhood. These displays of affection, termed intimacy in this piece, are also restricted and regulated by social processes and policies differentially for different groups of people. Part of the human experience is showing affection to those whom one loves or cares about.