"Ally Theater Is a Problem": LGBTQI+ Migrants' Experiences With Nurses in Canada

In a 2021 research study, exploring the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, trans, queer, intersex, and the "+" (LGBTQI+) migrants in health care in Canada, participants referred to the term "ally theater" in relation to their encounters with nurses. That is, the participants asserted that some nurses publicly demonstrate performative, or superficial, allyship regarding their identities. Using participants' experiences in health care as a metaphorical theater, this article presents a theoretical exploration of ally theater, and raises questions about professional practice claims of inclusivity and antiracism. The participants felt like deviant performers for not abiding by institutionalized centering of White hetero-cis-normative norms and thereby positioning racialized, LGBTQI+, and migrant as other.