The new trans-national politics of LGBT human rights in the Commonwealth: what can UK NGOs learn from the global South?

How should struggles for decriminalisation, human rights and equality in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity be taken forward? The chapter discusses this issue in a context where the British Empire’s legal legacy of criminalisation persists in most Commonwealth states. The chapter examines contemporary relationships between activisms in Britain and in those states, in the context of colonialism, imperialism and sexual nationalisms. The new London-based transnational politics of decriminalisation is analysed, led by NGOs such as Kaleidoscope, Human Dignity Trust, Peter Tatchell Foundation and Stonewall - increasingly seeking influence through the Commonwealth. The chapter then compares findings from this analysis of UK-based NGOs to themes from the findings of previous cross-national comparative analysis of struggles in Commonwealth states, and hence argues that UK activists have much to learn from the Global South. For example, African activists have criticised moves to link LGBT human rights to British development aid. Caribbean activists emphasise that regional international strategising existed prior to London-based transnational legal interventions; and the Voices Against 377 coalition in India suggests much to learn about innovative formation of alliances among social movements. The chapter thus presents a critical analysis of the new London-based transnational politics of LGBT human rights

Foreword

No abstract available

LGBTI organizations navigating imperial contexts: the Kaleidoscope Trust, the Commonwealth and the need for a decolonizing, intersectional politics

This article presents the first sustained social analysis of the Kaleidoscope Trust, the UK's leading social movement organization on LGBTI issues internationally, and its engagement with the Commonwealth – particularly through forming The Commonwealth Equality Network, comprising national NGOs. A contribution is made to sociological and critical analysis of transnational LGBTI movements, through argument for a new analytical framework combining the sociology of human rights with a decolonizing, intersectional approach – beyond the division between optimistic theories extending Western LGBTI progressive politics, or pessimistic postcolonial queer analyses. To investigate organizations' strategies leading to the Malta 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the research utilizes sources of data including event observation and website sources, initiating analysis of online environments. The analysis deploys social movement theory to examine how and why Kaleidoscope selected the Commonwealth as a political opportunity structure to engage through strategies of framing and articulation of human rights. Invention of The Commonwealth Equality Network, shaped online and offline by imperial relations between core and periphery, is analysed via transnational public sphere and critical theories and argued to indicate a significant restructuring of global queer politics. It is contended that a consistently decolonizing and intersectional articulation of human rights is needed

Genocide and global queer politics

This article presents a critical analysis of the relationship between the concept genocide and global queer politics, offering an original mapping and examination of the discourse of genocide in this respect. Starting from the beginnings of genocide discourse with Lemkin and the Genocide Convention, existing literature is analyzed to reveal circumscribed usage in relation to non-heterosexual lives. The methodology combines analysis of genocide discourse with case studies. The article maps and analyzes the historically shifting form of genocide discourse, including through attention to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and demonstrates how the patriarchal and heteronormative origins of this discourse continue to have effects which exclude queer people. This analysis is developed, in particular, in relation to the absence of sexuality, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity as group categories in the United Nations Genocide Convention. Interwoven with this analysis of discourse, case study analysis is used in relation to Nazi Germany, Uganda and The Gambia to establish genocidal processes focussed on homosexuality in each. The scope of claims for anti-homosexual genocide is thus extended in Nazi Germany and Uganda, and such a claim is initiated in The Gambia—while appreciating the complex relation of ‘homosexuality’ to African identities. It is also argued that new definitions of groups from the Rwanda Tribunal represent openings for some kinds of queer politics. The concluding section then draws on the discourse analyses of Foucault and postcolonial studies to initiate discussion of the potential discursive effects of invoking genocide in relation to homosexuality or queer politics, in particular contexts. It is argued that a greater consciousness of genocide in queer analysis and politics would be desirable, even while the existing terms of genocide discourse must be contested

Decolonizing the boomerang effect in global queer politics: a new critical framework for sociological analysis of human rights contestation

This article proposes a new critical framework for analysing transnational human rights-claiming and contestation: a ‘critical model of the boomerang effect’, that can embody sociological understanding and insights from decolonizing analyses. The article develops a critique of Keck and Sikkink’s well-known model of the ‘boomerang effect’, from politics and international relations. The new critical model is needed to analyse contestations including global queer politics, particularly to examine where and how actors in formerly or currently colonized states from the Global South can draw on the United Nations human rights system. The new model requires analysis of four themes, with a decolonizing enquiry applied to each: (1) articulation of human rights; (2) social structures and resources; (3) socio-cultural contexts; and (4) subjectivation. These themes are examined to illuminate two pivotal cases claiming decriminalization of same-sex sexual acts: Caleb Orozco in Belize, and Jason Jones in relation to Trinidad and Tobago – generating a new research agenda

Direitos humanos, orientação sexual e identidade de gênero na commonwealth: da História e do Direito ao desenvolvimento de diálogos ativistas e internacionais

As temáticas de orientação sexual e identidade de gênero estão chegando ao centro dos debates mundiais sobre direitos humanos e mudança social. Tais debates são particularmente vigorosos em muitos países-membros da Commonwealth, uma vez que a criminalização das práticas sexuais consentidas entre pessoas do mesmo sexo persiste na maioria de seus Estados Membros. O presente artigo busca analisar as causas dessa criminalização e as lutas organizadas pela descriminalização da homossexualidade em diversos desses estados da Commonwealth. O artigo está organizado em cinco partes: na primeira parte, apresentar-se-á resumo da criminalização contemporânea da homossexualidade na Commonwealth, incluindo alguns exemplos atuais de injustiça enfrentada por pessoas em vários estados e abordando as temáticas de direitos humanos, orientação sexual e identidade de gênero. A segunda parte é uma contribuição original para os debates acadêmicos internacionais sobre sexualidade e gênero; com ampla cobertura de exemplos de estados no Sul global. A terceira parte apresenta uma visão histórica da criminalização do comportamento homossexual no Reino Unido, uma vez que é de relevância contextual para todos os países da Commonwealth. A quarta parte fornece a primeira análise sistemática de dados sobre leis relacionadas à orientação sexual e identidade de gênero em cada um dos 54 estados da Commonwealth. Finalmente, a quinta parte examina a própria Commonwealth, com foco nas tentativas existentes de ativistas, especialistas e políticos de endereçar os direitos humanos de maneira generalista e a orientação sexual e a identidade de gênero de maneira específica na agenda da Commonwealth

Analysing homophobia, xenophobia and sexual nationalisms in Africa: Comparing quantitative attitudes data to reveal societal differences

To problematise Western discourses of a homophobic Africa, there is a need to analyse evidence of homophobia and its interplay with other attitudes, in ways that explore contextual differences. Hence this article offers an original sociological analysis of quantitative data on homophobia in African states, examining how this inter-relates with xenophobia. Social attitudes data is drawn from the Afrobarometer research project as a unique and important source, and compared in five diverse contexts: Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia. Data is examined from Round 6 (2014-15) and Round 7 (2016-18). Findings are interpreted in light of specific national literatures on the relations between sexuality, gender and nationalism, as well as wider critical and postcolonial perspectives ¿ especially conceptualisation of sexual nationalisms, and recent literatures on political homophobia. Whereas analyses of homonationalism in Western societies have explored alignments of LGBTI rights affirmation with anti-immigrant attitudes, the present study explores such relationships between homophobic and xenophobic attitudes in alternative patterns within specific African contexts. The analysis delivered not only challenges Western discourses of generalised African homophobia (especially discussing the counterexample of Mozambique) but also advances understanding of the complexity of how attitudes inter-relate in different postcolonial states

Foreword

No abstract available

Analysing homophobia, xenophobia and sexual nationalisms in Africa: Comparing quantitative attitudes data to reveal societal differences

To problematise Western discourses of a homophobic Africa, there is a need to analyse evidence of homophobia and its interplay with other attitudes, in ways that explore contextual differences. Hence, this article offers an original sociological analysis of quantitative data on homophobia in African states, examining how this inter-relates with xenophobia. Social attitudes data are drawn from the Afrobarometer research project as a unique and important source, and compared in five diverse contexts: Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia. Data are examined from Round 6 (2014–2015) and Round 7 (2016–2018). Findings are interpreted in light of specific national literatures on the relations between sexuality, gender and nationalism, as well as wider critical and postcolonial perspectives – especially conceptualisation of sexual nationalisms, and recent literatures on political homophobia. Whereas analyses of homonationalism in Western societies have explored alignments of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights affirmation with anti-immigrant attitudes, this study explores such relationships between homophobic and xenophobic attitudes in alternative patterns within specific African contexts. The analysis delivered not only challenges Western discourses of generalised African homophobia (especially discussing the counterexample of Mozambique) but also advances understanding of the complexity of how attitudes inter-relate in different postcolonial states

Comparative colonialisms for queer analysis: comparing British and Portuguese colonial legacies for same-sex sexualities and gender diversity in Africa – setting a transnational research agenda

Comparative analysis of colonialisms is of critical importance, and hence this article proposes and instigates such systematic comparative research with respect to same-sex sexualities and gender diversity. We offer a historical sociological comparison of the Portuguese and British empires analysing relevant regulation, in relation to two African contexts: Mozambique, which decriminalised same-sex sexual acts in 2015, and Kenya, where criminalisation persists. Through a comparative methodology, we illuminate important differences in the regulation of same-sex sexualities and gender diversity, that have contemporary legacies: (a) the difference in timing of criminalisation of same-sex acts and its impacts in the emergence of homosexuality in colonial governance; (b) the differences in transboundary moral regulation, between colonial ideologies and between Protestant and Catholic mission practices; and (c) the difference in racialised perceptions of homosexuality as a mainly European desire (in Portuguese colonialism) or as sometimes seen as potentially occurring universally (in British colonialism). Identifying such differences can assist those aligned with queer politics to understand and engage coloniality in the present