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This study is aimed at gaining a better understanding of how people fight for change collectively in societies that, unlike the United States, have less of democratic processes, and fundamental civil-political rights, and, of how law matters to their processes of doing so. It focuses on a particular minority group, gay people, in one particular society - Singapore, an Asian country with shades of authoritarianism - and explored how gay activists make sense of their grievances, strategize and take action to achieve their goals, and evaluate their own efforts. Based on systematic collection and analysis of data, including in-depth interviews with 100 activists, the study found: Unlike what sociology of law has learned in the United States, law - in the form of legal rights - is neither a strategic nor symbolic resource for these activists. The role of law in collective fights for social change goes beyond that of rights, which are stymied by the very legal system set up by the powers in control. Gay activists in Singapore regard law as a key source of oppression that obstructs their movement. The ruling party, in control for the past 45 years, has used law's power of sanction and delegitimization not only to deter legally, but also to cultivate cultural norms that discourage its people from coming together to agitate for social change, to use rights, and to ask for change in the form of rights, which are painted as confrontational, and detrimental to their society's stability and economic progress.Hence, these activists focus on achieving social changes outside formal law, such as gaining acceptance from society at large, and the state to come out, speak out, and have their grievances heard, and to organize, and assemble more publicly as a group of people with shared concerns and interests. Rather than turning to the law to aid their cause, they resist it through "pragmatic resistance," a strategy that precariously balances movement survival, and advancement. To "live to fight another day," they abide by the law, and oppressive cultural norms so as to avoid legal sanctions that could lead to the repression of their movement, and demise of small gains already accumulated, thus reversing their hard work; meanwhile, to advance their goals, without changing formal law they imperceptibly push the boundaries of those cultural norms - which are backed by legal sanctions - on what are socially and politically acceptable. They are conscious of, and accept, their strategy as a trade-off between the accumulation of informal gains outside formal law, and the reification and reinforcement of legal power that perpetuates the cultural legitimacy of the existing political order.

The dogmatic, authoritarian 1950's triggered a massive emergence of movements and sub-cultures that sought to counter repressive McCarthy-era persecutions and reject mainstream American society. Openly gay and lesbian communities felt empowered by these movements and began advocating for their own equal rights, consolidated self-esteem, and group consciousness. Out of these existing queer communities, the Gay Peoples Union, a student-led organization at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, emerged and championed gay activism. This paper argues that while many queer organizations claimed the mantle of revolutionary sexual struggle, none embodied the gay liberation movement like the Gay Peoples Union as they utilized both mainstream and alternative media outlets to combat systemic oppression, promote political engagement, and destigmatize homosexuality. This paper uses primary sources from the Gay Peoples Union's newspaper publications and radio program as well as secondary sources examining the gay liberation movement as a whole from different historians to serve as historical evidence. ; Professor: Dr. Kathryn Schumaker. Graduate Teaching Assistant: Derek Donwerth ; undergraduate

Questioning the emancipatory potential of hate crimes activism for sexual and gender non-normative people, this paper outlines the limits of criminal justice remedies to problems of gender, race, economic and sexual subordination. The first section considers some of the positive impacts of hate crimes activism, focusing on the benefits of legal "naming" for disenfranchised constituencies seeking political recognition. In the next section the authors outline the political shortcomings and troubling consequences of hate crimes activism. First, they examine how hate crimes activism is situated within a "mainstream gay agenda," a term they use to designate the set of projects prioritized by large, national gay rights organizations. The authors question the assimilationist drive of mainstream gay activism, and illustrate how such activism fails to reflect commitments to anti-racism, feminism, and economic redistribution. Second, they critique how the rhetoric of hate crimes activism isolates specific instances of violence against queer and transgender people, categorizing these as acts of individual prejudice, and obscures an understanding of the systemic, institutional nature of gender and sexuality subordination. Finally in this section, the authors interrogate hate crimes statutes as a practice of "identity politics" that, despite accomplishing certain goals, nonetheless dangerously reifies constructs of homosexual identity. In the third and final section, they look at how work on hate crimes occupies a place of "legitimacy" in the world of lesbian and gay activism. Preserving a sense of what hate crimes activism hopes to accomplish, they suggest other political strategies that pursue broader work for social and economic justice and build coalitions across identity categories.

The research into online spaces has been of growing interest for the sociologists. Moreover, the relevance of this field of study has increased even more with the breakout of the COVID pandemics. However, there is still little consensus or a consolidated methodological guidance for beginning searchers concerning the ways of doing an ethnography in such spaces. The goal of this paper is to present some fundamental considerations to have in mind when doing digital ethnography, based on concrete examples from my ongoing master research about the ways of doing gay activism in Facebook by men living in Mexico City. This work is an example of how ethnographic research is a continuous dialogue between our own biases as searchers, the fieldwork observations and theoretical framework. In that sense, the present article offers some guidance for the searchers interested in doing online ethnographic research, concerning its implications for the searchers and the reflexivity of the research participants. In the first section, I demonstrate the vital importance of online ethnographic observations for the precise formulation of the research topic. Then, I show how this fieldwork helped me to reformulate the research to focus only on Facebook. Thirdly, I put emphasis on the importance of our own reflexivity as searchers, an essential component of every inquiry in social science that remains implicit most of the time, giving the mistaken impression that the reflexivity of the searcher is not so important. Indeed, I make the point that the reflexivity of both searchers and participants is instrumental for an in-depth understanding of the research topic and its adequate formulation. Finally, I present very succinctly the different decisions I had to make to personalize my Facebook research profile, as well as the implications of these for the recruitment and the communication with the research participants. In a nutshell, my intention is to contribute to the enriching and still ongoing methodological discussions about the implications of doing online ethnographical research in everyday online spaces such as Facebook.

This article examines, using journalistic discourse as a primary source for analysis, theway in which theemergenceof HIV/AIDS inCosta Ricain the mid-1980s led toa process of sexual diversity´s criminalization, specially towards gay men. Thiscriminalizationisstructured througha dynamicwhere socialabjection was materializedinto actionby the state, foundinglegitimacy in the citizenship. The persecution ofpeople who practicedoridentifiedwith anon-normative sexuality, especially in keyplaces of socialization, resulted in organization and activism. This politicizationof identitiesis a process thatcontinuesto rebuild itselfand is part of theCosta Rican sociallandscape. ; El presente artículo examina, a partir de un análisis de los discursos periodísticos, la manera en que el surgimiento del VIH/SIDA en Costa Rica a mediados de la década de 1980 conlleva todo un proceso de criminalización de la diversidad sexual, principalmente enfocada a los hombres gay. Esta criminalización se estructuró a través de una dinámica donde la abyección social se materializó en acciones concretas por parte del Estado, las cuales encontraron legitimidad en la ciudadanía. La persecución de personas que practicaban o se identificaban con una sexualidad no normativa, especialmente en lugares de socialización claves, tuvo como resultado la organización activista. Esta politización de las identidades es un proceso que sigue reconstruyéndose y forma parte del paisaje social costarricense.