An ally’s role will never be perfect, but it remains a necessity to combat combative frameworks between queerness and heteronormativity.

We take up Meyer’s (2012) call that topics primarily focused on queerphobia should use an intersectional lens. Queer people with multiple “othered” (Fine 1994) identities, such as the poor and queer people of color, may conceptualize their queer identities differently from others who are more privileged, such as the white and affluent. All queer people must navigate internalized homophobia (Meyer and Dean 1998), resultant from a largely heterosexist U.S. culture, in constructing their queer identities and self-concepts. However, those who possess other disadvantaged identities have to consider their queerness within the context of a matrix of domination (Collins 2000) and combat the entire system of disadvantage and not just one spoke in the wheel (Meyer 2012). For example, queer immigrant youth engage in activism work that is centered on sexuality, ethnicity, and undocumented status (Terriquez 2015), whereas queer white people often do not realize the oppression they experience has racialized implications (Meyer 2012). This is all to say that using an intersectional lens is key to examining how a constellation of social identities contributes to why queerness becomes more important to the self-concept for some people, whereas for others, it is less so. Extending this literature, we argue that intersectionality creates variation in queer people’s expectations for allies by introducing differences in how queer people believe allies can help achieve desired movement outcomes. In the case of queer college students, we find that their expectations for straight allies depend on how they conceptualize their queerness. Ghaziani (2011) suggested such a possibility as two competing frameworks present in the queer population. The “us versus them” framework was the dominant framework in the past, he argued, and it was based on an oppositional stance that highlighted differences between queer people and their straight counterparts, thus echoing the political discourse mentioned above. Many queer people today adopt the “us and them” framework as they endorse queer people’s assimilation into the mainstream culture. The “us and them” framework sees queer people emphasize their similarities with straight people, resonating with the post-gay discourse. However, the “us versus them” framework has not disappeared, and it is still employed by some young queer people, especially those who are marginalized not only because of their queerness but also for other oppressed characteristics (Terriquez 2015). Thus, the two frameworks relate straight people to the queer community in different ways. In the present study, we take a step further to demonstrate that queer people vary among themselves in what expectations they have for straight allies. In sum, the existing literature highlights the importance of allies’ roles in social movements (Ghaziani 2011; McCarthy and Zald 1977; Russo 2014), but little is known about what expectations minority group members have for allies. The focus on allies themselves across movements in extant literature presumes that they are useful for movement success, and seminal movements work on resource mobilization has suggested that allies are a factor in determining movement outcomes (McCarthy and Zald 1977). While the question of why allies are important to social movements is outside of the scope of the present study, we posit that a failure to investigate the expectations set by groups allies seek to support absents important information about how allies and their efforts are perceived to be valuable to movement beneficiaries. Building on works that focus on other identity-based movements, we use the case of divergent LGBTQ+ rights movements to investigate queer people’s expectations for allies and their perceived role in movement outcomes. We ask the following questions: What do queer people, as a diverse group, expect of straight allies? How do students’ queer and other intersecting identities influence their expectations and evaluations of straight allies? By focusing on the marginalized queer account and its variation, this paper offers a novel perspective on allyship, which addresses how varied expectations complicate the function of allyship in movements. Ultimately, we find that gender and racial identities of queer people influence which sexuality discourses they draw on to formulate their expectations of allies. Their varied expectations posit different roles allies should take in LGBTQ+ rights movements.