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In this audiovisual presentation I reflect on the mix of creative methods that are currently viable for establishing and (re)creating a complex cast of characters via graphics, public pranks, and other modes of storytelling. The presentation will discuss the changes over the last fifteen years I have observed in social justice protests and social media activism that engage mainstream media attention. I then analyse two successful graphic-based campaigns that I ran in 2014. The 1st four-day campaign concerned Opera Australia's hiring of Tamar Iveri, a soprano singer who had advocated violence against LGBTI activists in her hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia. Mostly remaining within social media, this campaign utilised the initial viral spread of an infographic to target Facebook mechanisms that measure public satisfaction with commercial organisations and sponsors. The second month-long campaign concerned the proposed attendance of Australian government ministers at the anti-gay, anti-abortion "World Congress of Families" conference in Melbourne. Eventually crossing into mainstream media, this campaign succeeded via the utilisation of a variety of online and of offline participatory tactics.

In 2013 I 'reactivated' Pauline Pantsdown, a satirical character I had inhabited in the late 1990s, as a virtual political activist on social media. Over the past four years I've orchestrated my followers in a series of action campaigns around issues of race, gender and sexuality, utilising episodic narrative; visual/text memes and consumer boycotts via the use of available online tools and offline collaborations/protest. In September 2016, I orchestrated a shutdown of a proposed 'Australian Christian Lobby' (ACL) meeting at the Mercure Hotel, targeting their attacks on specific transgender children. It eventuated afterwards that this was to have been the inaugural meeting of the "same-sex marriage" plebiscite "No" campaign, to be attended by the ACL; the heads of the Sydney Catholic and Anglican Dioceses, and other groups. Several weeks of attacks by "The Australian" newspaper and its News Limited subsidiaries followed, including a front page 'Australian' article; seven opinion columns; several Sky News TV editorials; a Bill Leak cartoon of LGBTI activists as Nazis; false accusations of violent threats and death threats; and a campaign to have me fired from my job as a UNSW lecturer. I want to examine my and News Limited's radically different narrative constructions of these events (and other stories involving LGBTI activists); the place of the Pantsdown icon with these narratives; the mechanisms of memes and web design in creating unusual bridges between social and "mainstream" media – for example, the embedding of social media in news articles, and my use of the Facebook "Notes" format to publicly file a report about the Australian Christian Lobby to the Federal Police. Background references : Protest at 'Australian Christian Lobby' conference 23.4.16https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfBr9rS1us0 Same-Sex Marriage Event off : Threats to hotel staff (The Australian, 17.9.16) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/samesex-marriage-event-off-threats-to-hotel-staff/news-story/d45bd0f9e9a774fc3e3d0741f176da13 ACT Policing : Background to Lyle Shelton's previous claims of 'death threats' & 'violent threats'. (Facebook notes , 6.1.17) https://www.facebook.com/notes/pauline-pantsdown/act-policing-background-to-lyle-sheltons-previous-claims-of-death-threats-violen/873872706087720/ Hyatt Hotel defends booking for Australian Christian Lobby's anti-gay marriage conference (Canberra Times 21.10.14)http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/hyatt-hotel-defends-booking-for-australian-christian-lobbys-antigay-marriage-conference-20141021-1196rn.html

This paper studies the role of the European Union (EU) in supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) communities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by focusing on the case of Lebanon. It seeks to fill the existing gap in the literature regarding the transversal conceptualization of EU practices in support of LGBTI communities in the MENA by focusing on what is happening on the ground. The paper builds on semi-structured interviews and engages with primary and secondary literature on practices in international relations and the EU's transversal democracy promotion to answer three main questions: To what extent do the EU agents engage with local actors to improve transversal minority rights? Who are the agents involved? And what influences the EU approach/practice in this area? The main findings reveal the EU as a subtle actor when it comes to LGBTI rights in the MENA; it tends to treat the matter within a broader human rights aspect and to support initiatives taken by locals. This is due to the sensitivity of the domestic context as well as awareness that it might have a negative effect on the LGBTI groups if the EU became more vocal.

This study examines the impact of the refugee status determination (RSD) process in the UK on LGBTI refugees who have been successful with 'proving' their sexual orientation. This research explores the impact that the process, which is situated in a culture of disbelief, has on LGBTI refugees' integration in the UK. The refusal rate of LGBTI asylum claims is higher when compared with claims based on other grounds, with preconceived notions about how LGBTI persons act are seen to be a contributing factor. However, for the minority of individuals who are successful in 'proving' their sexual orientation and gain refugee status in the UK, their experiences of the process is not well documented. This study therefore explores their perspective, concluding with what can be changed during the process to reduce potential, negative, integration outcomes.

Examining the relationship between social media, anti-gender and everyday polarisation, this article identifies the ways social media platforms reflect the mundane amidst the interactions of users over social and political issues, showing how micro-stories can foreground macro-political tensions online. We examine a Twitter event over an outing that showed vigorous debates on issues pertaining to gender and its socio-political connotations in Turkey, employing textual and content analyses of reactions shared through hashtags and mentions. The outing involved a child custody battle in court and a secret recording, exposing the sexual identity of a woman popstar #Intizar. The paper shows how Twitter facilitated conservative, homophobic and patriarchal reactions that harnessed deep political polarisation between the AKP government's supporters and those declaring solidarity with LGBTI+ issues. A mundane divorce story exhibited the deep political tension in Turkey, which also exemplifies the depth of increasing online polarisation over gender on a global scale.

The study of sexuality, especially queer sexuality, has occupied a historically marginal position within political economy. Where feminist scholars have addressed the topic, they have typically done so through the lens of women's sexual labour and social reproduction and/or by framing sexual orientation and gender identity as a variable through which patterns of differentiation may occur. Most critical political economy ignores sexuality entirely. As a result, matters of queer oppression and resistance have not been systematically investigated or theorised. This paper addresses this gap by fusing together insights from the emergent 'queering IPE' literature with two other strands of scholarship that integrate queer concerns into the study of global capitalism: the 'globalisation' and 'state-centric' frames. Based on this, I propose a theoretical framework for understanding queer struggle and apply this to the analysis of LGBTI politics and activism in Ghana. The paper argues that queer oppression and resistance are important topics of inquiry in and of themselves in political economy. At the same time, a broader ontological shift is required to recognise the constitutive role of sexuality within political economic phenomena, which has potentially far-reaching implications for future research agendas within and beyond the study of queer politics.

Social justice activism via staged protest interrupts official media discourses on national politics. This presentation will discuss the changes over the last fifteen years I have observed in social justice protests and social media activism that engage mainstream media attention. I will present and analyse two successful graphic-based campaigns that I ran in 2014. The 1st four-day campaign concerned Opera Australia's hiring of Tamar Iveri, a soprano singer who had advocated violence against LGBTI activists in her hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia. Mostly remaining within social media, this campaign utilised the initial viral spread of an infographic to target Facebook mechanisms that measure public satisfaction with commercial organisations and sponsors. The second month-long campaign concerned the proposed attendance of Australian government ministers at the anti-gay, anti-abortion "World Congress of Families" conference in Melbourne. Eventually crossing into mainstream media, this campaign succeeded via the utilisation of a variety of online and of offline participatory tactics. I will reflect on the mix of methods that are currently viable for establishing and (re)creating a complex cast of characters via graphics, public pranks, and other modes of storytelling.

This paper argues that current iterations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights are limited by an overreliance on particular representations of sexuality, in which homosexuality is defined negatively through a binary of homosexual/heterosexual. The limits of these representations are explored in order to unpick the possibility of engaging in a form of sexuality politics that is grounded in difference rather than in sameness or opposition. The paper seeks to respond to Braidotti's call for an "affirmative politics" that is open to forms of creative, future-oriented action and that might serve to answer some of the more common criticisms of current LGBTI rights activism.

My foreword to the book contextualises the 2017 Australian Marriage Postal Survey within a history of anti-LGBTI actions, politics and campaigns, positing a uniqueness of the Australian political and social environment in which the survey took place by reasons of unique historical timing. It then summarises the main themes and ideas represented by the book's contributors, as well as analysing the content of some chapters.

My chapter "Inside the War Memorial" was a personal , analytical and poetic account of my activities as a political activist and artist during the 2017 Australian Marriage Postal Survey. It examined the role I played in moderating "LGBTI Rights Australia", Australia's largest LGBTIQ Facebook page; my activist/artist "Pauline Pantsdown" page, and a Twitter account which satirized the official "Coalition for Marriage" page that represented the "No" position during the postal survey. This is intertwined with poetic personal reflection of the effect of the survey on my personal life, and the construction of visual art as part of the campaign.

This study takes its point of departure in human rights, equality and personal freedom, including support for the rights of LGBTI persons. Its intention is to combine these principles with respect for African communities, cultures, and the fortitude with which Africans face many challenges. Human rights law demands that people be protected against human rights violations committed by private actors. The Human Rights Based Approach to Development (HRBA) looks at the potential of non-state actors as partners. In contexts where many public services are delivered by non-state actors, many areas of family and private law are governed by customary or religious institutions and norms, and where the outreach of the state is limited, examining the roles of non-state actors takes on a particular urgency. Thus, this study devotes as much or more attention to structures and norms based in religion and society as in the state. In practice, these various norm sets are very often mixed together with one another. Some may argue that African societies are not yet ready to take on the challenges of a debate on issues such as sexual orientation and gender identity. There are many responses to this. Most obviously, African societies are taking on this challenge, either on their own account or as a consequence of living in our globalized world. African LGBTI persons and activists, like those in other parts of the world, are not waiting for a date in the future to start challenging prejudice. Neither are their opponents. All sectors of society, including media, politics, religion and the education and health sectors are increasingly addressing these issues. Representatives of all of these sectors testify to the public's thirst for knowledge, as well as for a firm moral foundation on which communities can live together. African societies and the deeply human values they embody contain resources to face challenges, including in this sensitive domain.

The Croatia Country Gender Assessment reviewed the state of equality between women and men in Croatia in endowments, economic opportunities, and voice and agency. Overall, the country has made progress on including gender equality both institutionally and legally into its policy agenda. Certain indicators of gender equality remain strong, such as equitable primary and secondaryschool enrollment for boys and girls. A closer look reveals areas that need to be improved, such as equality in the labor market, women's entrepreneurship and role in politics and business, the situation of Roma women, rural and urban disparities, care work distribution between men and women, and the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people.The most significant gap is in access to economic opportunities, with a large number of women, youth, retirees, and minorities excluded from the labor market. Sustainable and effective solutions for this complex issue lie in a whole of government effort covering education andskills development, including retraining and lifelong learning; equity in healthcare; provision of care services to enable women to enter the labor market; and inclusive entrepreneurship. The findings are in line with some of the issues raised in the Croatia Systematic Country Diagnostic of the World Bank; this assessment unpacks these issues in more detail and identifies additional areas for attention. The World Bank could use its engagement with the Government of Croatia to advocate for these issues, and to look for entry points in its current portfolio and pipeline. To this end, a Gender Roadmap has been developed under the Country Partnership Framework (2019-2024) that will focus on how some of the gender gaps could be reduced through the Bank's current and future engagements, and progress tracked periodically. It shows a commitment by the Bank to follow up on the findings and the recommendations arising from this assessment. The conclusions have been arrived at using mixed methods, supplementing quantitative sources with qualitative tools. The assessment is also innovative in highlighting the intersectionality of overlapping disadvantages arising from social and spatial exclusion. It does this by bringing in voices of the youth, elderly women, Roma, and LGBTI from Slavonia (one of the least-developed parts of the country), and Zagreb (the most developed). For instance, the cumulative disadvantages for an elderly rural woman in less-developed Slavonia is not the same as that for a woman of similar age in the capital Zagreb.

Includes bibliographical references ; The interests of this thesis lie in the way in which solidarities are imagined within the South African feminist movement, one which is deeply conscious of the intersectional nature of gender and of the politics of sexuality as part and parcel of any analysis of social justice concerns. Theoretically informed by the work of Castells, Hassim, and other theorists exploring the dynamics of 'movement building,' the thesis focuses upon the discourses of solidarity used within one particular feminist organisation as it imagines new alliances. The organisation (Sonke Gender Justice Network) concentrates on the work of transforming violent hegemonic masculinities and plans to develop programmes working with new partners whose work focuses on justice and the lives of transgendered, lesbian, gay, and intersex people and communities ('LGBTI'). The research draws on qualitative data drawn from interviews with Sonke staff and on the researcher's own experience as an intern within the organisation, and analyses the material in order to explore the shape and implications of discourses on new alliances. The conclusions of the thesis speak to the complexities of imagining solidarity across differences of theory, identity, and experience.