Navigating homocolonialism in LGBTQ2+ rights strategies: sexual and political possibilities beyond the current framing of international queer rights

Rahman, M. and Hossain, A. (2022) Navigating homocolonialism in LGBTQ2+ rights strategies: sexual and political possibilities beyond the current framing of international queer rights. In: Tirado Chase, A., Mahdavi, P., Banai, H. and Gruskin, S. (eds.) Human Rights at the Intersections. Bloomsbury Academic: London, pp. 155-164. ISBN 9781350268661 (doi: 10.5040/9781350268692.0027)

Abstract

LGBTQ2+ rights have reached a threshold of international attention and promotion and, concurrently, provoked widespread resistance from many governments, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and socially conservative and religious movements, both in the Global North and Global South.[1] This process of contention between homophile proponents and homophobic opponents, results in what we call “homocolonialism”: a political process through which LGBTQ2+ human rights are deployed and then resisted as part of both an actual and perceived neo-colonial dynamic (Dellatolla 2020, Rahman 2014; 2020). This dynamic consists on one side of a globalized but yet modular strategy of promoting LGBTQ2+ rights and, on the other, political homophobia consisting of particular forms of social stigma and legal oppression, led by the state but often in alliance with conservative social movements (Bosia and Weiss 2013) and targeted at the full range of non-heterosexualities. Below, we explain the homocolonial dynamic and then suggest pathways to disrupt its negative effects. To illustrate the potential of these disruptions, we focus on a case study of the 156queer movement in Bangladesh, a South Asian Muslim-majority nation that has retained legal homophobia from the British colonial era. We then conclude with a discussion of the implications of such examples for a different approach to queer human rights beyond a focus on “known” sexual identities and the prioritization of legal rights-based strategies.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hossain, Dr Adnan
• Authors: Rahman, M., and Hossain, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• ISBN: 9781350268661