Suchergebnisse

Tommaso Virgili is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Migration, Integration, Transnationalization Department of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and a Research Associate at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels. At the WZB, he works on Islamism and liberal Islam in connection with individual rights, with a focus on Europe and the MENA region. Tommaso holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Public Law and a Master's degree in Law from Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and a Master of Arts in Middle East and Islamic Studies with Arabic from the American University of Paris and Cairo.

This week we ask: What explains successes and setbacks in the promotion of LGBT+ rights? And is political science as welcoming as it should be towards LGBT+ research?

"Anti-LGBT and Religious Right Movements in the United States" published on by Oxford University Press.

1. Introduction -- 2. From Western Deviance to Global Homonormativity? Theories of Sexuality and Sexual Diversity Politics -- 3. International Relations, Human Rights Diplomacy, and LGBT Rights -- 4. Global Homophobia, Queer Diplomacy, and Conflict -- 5. Researching LGBT Human Rights Diplomacy -- 6. The Mechanics of Human Rights Diplomacy -- 7. Promoting LGBT Human Rights in International Settings -- 8. Case Study: The 2014 US Resolution -- 9. Human Rights Diplomacy: Policy Implications.

Democracy is frequently thought of as a "universal value". Donors for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accept this assumption and take measures in recipient countries that aim to promote or uphold values they consider central to democracy, including political competition and individual equality, among others. However, some scholars have questioned whether such values are actually universally applicable, and whether donors need to disavow themselves of the notion that "one size fits all" when it comes to promoting democracy in developing countries. Nevertheless, the role of cultural values in mediating the effectiveness of democracy promotion is relatively under-theorised in existing research. This discussion paper is part of the larger research project "What is democracy's value?", which aims at understanding how societal values and attitudes influence the effectiveness of international democracy promotion in African countries. The project looks at how social values and political attitudes mediate democracy promotion in two specific realms: attempts by heads of state to circumvent presidential term limits, and reforms to legislation in the realm of family law and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual (LGBT+) rights. This discussion paper focusses on two cases that took place in Uganda: Yoweri Museveni's successful 2005 campaign to remove presidential term limits from the Constitution, and the attempt to pass legislation outlawing homosexuality in 2014. In both cases, OECD donors intervened, to varying degrees, in an effort to uphold basic principles of democracy. Despite popular support for maintaining term limits, donor interventions were unsuccessful in the first case. They were, however, successful in thwarting the Anti-Homosexuality Act, even though it had a high level of popular support. The findings of the Ugandan case studies problematise the assumed link between cultural value dimensions – popularised by cross-cultural researchers such as Hofstede, Schwartz, and Inglehart and Welzel – and popular political attitudes. A tendency towards particular value dimensions does not necessarily seem to predispose Ugandans towards particular attitudes, nor does a match or mismatch between the value dimensions of donors and Ugandans result in a corresponding match or mismatch of political attitudes. Likewise, a widespread political attitude does not dictate the outcomes of reform processes, at least in the authoritarian context in which Ugandan politics takes place. More important is the magnitude of material incentives and/or sanctions offered by donors, and the transnational alliances between international and domestic actors. This is not to say that values do not matter. Cultural values are an integral part of the social and political contexts in which democracy promotion takes place and are an important factor in informing the behaviour of executive decision-makers. A greater understanding of cultural values, beliefs and attitudes is integral for both the study of democracy promotion and designing context-sensitive and effective interventions to support democracy in recipient countries.

While LGBT studies have been problematizing normative categories of sexuality primarily in Western cultures, the status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in non-Western societies remains understudied. This study examines the political attitudes toward LGBT individuals in Turkish society and explores the experiences of transgender individuals. While Turkey holds a strong economic position among Western countries, the situation of sexual minorities lags behind international standards. This study explores two research questions. First, what is the Turkish government's outlook for the LGBT community? Secondly, what kind of problems and challenges do trans-individuals experience in Turkey? This study first introduces a macro-level analysis of the politics of gender identity in Turkey by analyzing the debates of four deputies in the Turkish Parliament, each representing their parties' disparate viewpoints. Secondly, a micro-level analysis of previously collected interviews with twenty-five trans-individuals are also examined that shed light on the difficulties of being a trans-individual in Turkey. The content analysis shows that trans-individuals experience physical, sexual, and emotional violence, in addition to experiencing discrimination in employment, housing, and healthcare. The findings of this micro-level analysis elucidate the continuous discrimination, inequality, and violence that these individuals experience, while the macro-level analysis portrays the state's discriminatory policies toward LGBT individuals in Turkey.

AbstractThis paper examines the meanings and the social function of the Rainbow artwork mounted on one of Warsaw's central squares. It analyses how its public presence became site of the Polish symbolic conflict over LGBT rights, nationhood, and Europe. On the one hand, the Rainbow illuminates existing social cleavages – the way in which Polish national subjectivity is currently reconstructed in relation to undergoing social and civilisational changes after EU accession. On the other hand, the Rainbow not only represents existing differences in society, but itself catalyses polarisation of public attitudes. It does so mainly because of its perceived LGBT symbolism. It is shown that while the symbolic conflict may be intensifying and political fringe polarisation is indeed occurring, popular sentiments are actually liberalising, public visibility of the LGBT minority is historically unparalleled, and a European civilisational aspiration is overwhelmingly embraced in Polish society. This paper shows that though homophobic right‐wing radicalisation does occur, it is mainly a result of political ideology supply, and that overwhelming popular support for the artwork and its 'gay' meaning reflects actual social liberalisation and a pluralisation of the public sphere in contemporary Poland.

Democracy is frequently thought of as a "universal value". Donors for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accept this assumption and take measures in recipient countries that aim to promote or uphold values they consider central to democracy, including political competition and individual equality, among others. However, some scholars have questioned whether such values are actually universally applicable, and whether donors need to disavow themselves of the notion that "one size fits all" when it comes to promoting democracy in developing countries. Nevertheless, the role of cultural values in mediating the effectiveness of democracy promotion is relatively under-theorised in existing research. This discussion paper is part of the larger research project "What is democracy's value?", which aims at understanding how societal values and attitudes influence the effectiveness of international democracy promotion in African countries. The project looks at how social values and political attitudes mediate democracy promotion in two specific realms: attempts by heads of state to circumvent presidential term limits, and reforms to legislation in the realm of family law and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual (LGBT+) rights. This discussion paper focusses on two cases that took place in Uganda: Yoweri Museveni's successful 2005 campaign to remove presidential term limits from the Constitution, and the attempt to pass legislation outlawing homosexuality in 2014. In both cases, OECD donors intervened, to varying degrees, in an effort to uphold basic principles of democracy. Despite popular support for maintaining term limits, donor interventions were unsuccessful in the first case. They were, however, successful in thwarting the Anti-Homosexuality Act, even though it had a high level of popular support. The findings of the Ugandan case studies problematise the assumed link between cultural value dimensions – popularised by cross-cultural researchers such as Hofstede, Schwartz, and Inglehart and Welzel – and popular political attitudes. A tendency towards particular value dimensions does not necessarily seem to predispose Ugandans towards particular attitudes, nor does a match or mismatch between the value dimensions of donors and Ugandans result in a corresponding match or mismatch of political attitudes. Likewise, a widespread political attitude does not dictate the outcomes of reform processes, at least in the authoritarian context in which Ugandan politics takes place. More important is the magnitude of material incentives and/or sanctions offered by donors, and the transnational alliances between international and domestic actors. This is not to say that values do not matter. Cultural values are an integral part of the social and political contexts in which democracy promotion takes place and are an important factor in informing the behaviour of executive decision-makers. A greater understanding of cultural values, beliefs and attitudes is integral for both the study of democracy promotion and designing context-sensitive and effective interventions to support democracy in recipient countries.