Transnational Queer Activism

3 units

This course explores the recent emergence of visible movements for sexual and gender minorities across the globe. The course begins with an overview of theories of collective action, putting canonical texts in social movement studies in conversation with postcolonial, queer, and transnational feminist approaches to activism and resistance. The aim is to lay a theoretical foundation for transnational analysis that does not center Western experience. The second part of the course moves through some key issues in LGBTI organizing that are overlooked when focusing on Euro-America, including: the importance of democratic transition for social movements; the prevalence of human rights as frames for sexual rights in the global South; limitations of the term homophobia when conceiving of hostility toward sexual minorities cross-culturally; and the role of colonialism and neo-colonialism in the globalization of LGBTI identities. Students will read texts attentive to the specificities of activism and resistance in the global South such as Out in Africa: LGBT Organizing in Namibia and South Africa, Queer Activism in India, and Mobilizing Gay Singapore: Rights and Resistance in an Authoritarian State. Course materials will also include primary source material from translated interviews with Argentine transgender activists the months before the passage of the Gender Identity Law. Oral presentations will compare a case of LGBTI activism discussed in class to the work done by a St. Louis-based organization. By the end of the course, the students will be able to explain the important ways global Southern LGBTI movements differ from their Northern counterparts, contextualize news reports of events like the passage of the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda, and craft research contributions based on global Southern case studies.Prerequisite: Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (L77 100B) or permission of instructor.