Suchergebnisse

The politics of gay and transgender visibility and representation at the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual televised popular music festival presented to viewers as a contest between European nations, show that processes of interest to Queer International Relations do not just involve states or even international institutions; national and transnational popular geopolitics over 'LGBT rights' and 'Europeanness' equally constitute the understandings of 'the international' with which Queer IR is concerned. Building on Cynthia Weber's reading the persona of the 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst with 'queer intellectual curiosity', this paper demonstrates that Eurovision shifted from, in the late 1990s, an emerging site of gay and trans visibility to, by 2008–14, part of a larger discursive circuit taking in international mega-events like the Olympics, international human-rights advocacy, Europe/Russia relations, and the politics of state homophobia and transphobia. Contest organisers thus had to take positions – ranging from detachment to celebration – about 'LGBT' politics in host states and the Eurovision region. The construction of spatio-temporal hierarchies around attitudes to LGBT rights, however, revealed exclusions that corroborate other critical arguments on the reconfiguration of national and European identities around 'LGBT equality'.

This volume combines empirically oriented and theoretically grounded reflections upon various forms of LGBT activist engagement to examine how the notion of intersectionality enters the political context of contemporary Serbia and Croatia. By uncovering experiences of multiple oppression and voicing fear and frustration that accompany exclusionary practices, the contributions to this book seek to reinvigorate the critical potential of intersectionality, in order to generate the basis for wider political alliances and solidarities in the post-Yugoslav space. The authors, both activists and academics, challenge the systematic absence of discussions of (post- )Yugoslav LGBT activist initiatives in recent social science scholarship, and show how emancipatory politics of resistance can reshape what is possible to imagine as identity and community in post-war and post-socialist societies. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the areas of history and politics of Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslav states, as well as to those working in the fields of political sociology, European studies, social movements, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, and queer theory and activism.

AbstractIn the EU accession literature, there is a tendency to downplay the role of discourse in facilitating norm diffusion, particularly when domestic resistance towards European norms is strong. The assumptions in this thinking are that critical deliberations and civil society activism simply lack the potency required to elicit norm conforming behaviour in accession states and that the only realistic hope for achieving this rests with the introduction of material incentives that make the costs of normative adaptation lower than its rewards. I focus on developments in the field of LGBT politics to challenge these assumptions and to specify the conditions under which discursive strategies are likely to stimulate the domestic uptake of contentious norms. I highlight shared identity as a crucial factor in the success of discursive influence, contending that under conditions of identity convergence, a cultural environment prevails in which norm promoters can more effectively ignite a process of deliberative reflection, shame norm-violators into conformance and cultivate resonance around controversial ideas. I develop these arguments through an analysis of LGBT and accession politics in Croatia and Serbia, contending that Croatia's strong identification with Europe accelerated LGBT recognition there while Serbia's relatively weaker identification with Europe slowed it down.

Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, has seen a sudden attempt to establish LGBT politics during the last 5 years, due to movement mobilization and favourable local and European opportunity structures. The article suggests a multiscalar analysis of Thessaloniki Prides, which takes into account politics articulated by a series of actors located in distinct scales. These actors include institutional and religious authorities, as well as the local LGBT movement. The analysis demonstrates that Thessaloniki Prides are shaped by conflicting discursive blocks articulated through the national, urban/local, and transnational scale. Prides, as the most visible outcome of the local LGBT movement, become a collective action, which is shaped and continuously challenged by its embeddedness in these scales. This analysis brings new insights into the geo-temporal politics of LGBT politics, reminding that European periphery's sexual politics are located in a nexus of progressive cosmopolitanism and nationalist anti-modernity. In fact, the Thessaloniki case demonstrates that being part of the Western periphery places sexual politics between a globalist EU-ized discourse of modernity on the one hand and anti-secular views on heteronormative traditions on the other. Such a space is the setting where grassroots LGBTQ movements perform their politics.

The politics of gay and transgender visibility and representation at the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual televised popular music festival presented to viewers as a contest between European nations, show that processes of interest to Queer International Relations do not just involve states or even international institutions; national and transnational popular geopolitics over 'lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights' and 'Europeanness' equally constitute the understandings of 'the international' with which Queer International Relations is concerned. Building on Cynthia Weber's reading the persona of the 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst with 'queer intellectual curiosity', this article demonstrates that Eurovision shifted from, in the late 1990s, an emerging site of gay and trans visibility to, by 2008–2014, part of a larger discursive circuit taking in international mega-events like the Olympics, international human-rights advocacy, Europe–Russia relations and the politics of state homophobia and transphobia. Contest organisers thus had to take positions — ranging from detachment to celebration — about 'lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender' politics in host states and the Eurovision region. The construction of spatio-temporal hierarchies around attitudes to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, however, revealed exclusions that corroborate other critical arguments on the reconfiguration of national and European identities around 'lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality'.

1. Equalities, cities and ordinariness : introduction -- 2. Contextualising research and researching contexts : situating participatory projects -- 3. The promise of ordinary lives in a city paved with 'gay gold' -- 4. The gay scene : having it all? -- 5. Bi people and trans people under our umbrella? Contesting and recreating ordinariness -- 6. Ordinary activisms : possibilities beyond the dichotomies of radicalism/assimilation -- 7. Resistant ordinary activisms : safe in the 'gay city'? -- 8. Is pride political? Beyond (oppositional) politics in lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans festivals -- 9. Ordinary in brighton? Conclusion.

In persuading the Supreme Court that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, the LGBT rights movement has achieved its most important objective of the last few decades. Throughout its history, the marriage equality movement has been criticized by those who believe marriage rights were a conservative cause overshadowed a host of more important issues. Now that nationwide marriage equality is a reality, everyone who cares about LGBT rights must grapple with how best to promote the interests of sexual and gender identity minorities in a society that permits same-sex couples to marry. This book brings together twelve original essays by leading scholars of law, politics, and society to address the most important question facing the LGBT movement today: What does marriage equality mean for the future of LGBT rights? After Marriage Equality, The Future of LGBT Rights explores crucial and wide-ranging social, political, and legal issues confronting the LGBT movement, including the impact of marriage equality on political activism and mobilization, antidiscrimination laws, transgender rights, LGBT elders, parenting laws and policies, religious liberty, sexual autonomy, and gender and race differences. The book also looks at how LGBT movements in other nations have responded to the recognition of same-sex marriages, and what we might emulate or adjust in our own advocacy. Aiming to spark discussion and further debate regarding the challenges and possibilities of the LGBT movement's future, After Marriage Equality will be of interest to anyone who cares about the future of sexual equality. -- from dust jacket.

Discourses on LGBT asylum in the UK offers a critical overview of debates and cultural productions, exploring their political ramifications for refugees and UK sexual citizens. The book looks at the specificities of the exclusion of LGBT refugees, to show how the cultural politics of queer migration help us rethink emancipatory sexual politics

Despite the major breakthrough for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists on marriage equality, the fight against employment discrimination remains elusive. Whether one is protected from discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity depends on where one lives and is contingent on a patchwork of state and local policies. In this article, we investigate the adoption of state nondiscrimination laws that are inclusive of sexual orientation between 1980 and 2009. Findings from our event history analysis of policy adoption contribute to the study of social movements and LGBT politics in three ways. First, and consistent with social movement theory, we find countermovement opposition to gay rights as well as pro-LGBT political opportunities to be critical. Second, we find organization and opportunity to fluctuate in importance over time, underscoring the need for historically informed analyses that seriously consider when key actors should matter for social movement outcomes. Third, we produce new state-level estimates of public opinion of nondiscrimination laws. We show that while very high levels of public support are common for states that adopt nondiscrimination laws, they are not enough on their own, particularly in the face of opposition.

Social movement theories are often built on Western and US-centric understandings of civic life and the values that underpin it. Studying participation in the LGBT movement in Prague, Czech Republic provides one context for complicating such underlying assumptions. Within theory on mobilization, collective identity is said to act as a conduit for developing personal investment through individuals' identities. Interviews with LGBT people in Prague, however, show that there is little sense of or desire for collective identity among these potential participants. Czech national history contextualizes respondents' distinct descriptions of the role of civic life and activism, value of private life, and contemporary situation for LGBT people in Prague. Drawing from these descriptions, and an analysis of the influence of values on movement participation in the Czech Republic and other CEE countries, I argue that nation and history complicate the application of collective identity for mobilization in Prague's LGBT movement.

Intro -- Foreword -- 1 The History of Identity Politics -- Close-up: The Gay Holocaust -- Homosexuality as a Disorder -- The Stonewall Riots -- Close-up: The First LGBT Rights Organizations -- Close-up: The Civil Rights Movement's Gay Hero -- The LGBT Rights Movement-and Its Backlash -- The Impact of the AIDS Crisis -- The Gay Response to AIDS: Organize -- Antigay Hate Crimes -- 2 Marriage Equality -- Close-up: LGBT Parenting -- Two Steps Forward… -- …One Step Back -- A Civil Rights Issue -- Close-up: Marriage Equality's Repercussions -- At Long Last, Victory -- Enduring Past Death -- 3 LGBT People in the Military -- Giving a Face to Gay Servicemen -- Serving in Silence -- "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- Close-up: Harassment of LGBT Service Members -- Repeal…and Respect -- 4 Workplace Issues and Discrimination -- Standing Up to Discrimination -- The Fight for Workplace Protection -- Close-up: ENDA and Hobby Lobby -- Shattering the Workplace Closet -- Winning the Battle Slowly But Steadily -- Series Glossary -- Further Resources -- Index.

Europeanisation, LGBT activism, and non-heteronormativity in the post-Yugoslav space : an introduction / Bojan Bilić -- Discontents of professionalisation : sexual politics and activism in Croatia in the context of EU accession / Nicole Butterfield -- The First European Festival of Lesbian and Gay Film was Yugoslav : dismantling the geotemporality of Europeanisation in Slovenia / Sanja Kajinić -- Growing oppression, growing resistance : LGBT activism and Europeanisation in Macedonia / Ana Miškovska Kajevska -- Europe [heart symbol] gays? : Europeanisation and pride parades in Serbia / Bojan Bilić -- Queering as Europeanisation, Europeanisation as queering : challenging homophobia in everyday life in Montenegro / Danijel Kalezić and Čarna Brković -- From Orientalism to homonationalism : queer politics, Islamophobia, and Europeanisation in Kosovo / Piro Rexhepi -- On the other side of an ethnocratic state? : LGBT activism in post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina / Adelita Selmić -- Beyond EUtopian promises and disillusions : a conclusion / Bojan Bilić and Paul Stubbs