Winter 2014 INTD: 497 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Social Movements in the Global South
Lecturer: Julie Moreau
Email:
Office Hours: TBA
Meeting Time and Location:TBA
Course Description:
The rights of sexual minorities have been of increasing interest both in academia and popular media. Hilary Clinton’s 2011 speech to the United Nations on International Human Rights Day took the occasion to declare that ‘gay rights are human rights.’ From the recent protests in Britain and France for and against same-sex marriage, to the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act by the US Supreme Court, much attention has been paid to the legal status of lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI)individuals.Critical queer theorist JasbirPuar argues that in the past decade there has been a shift or transition “in how queer subjects are relating to nation-states,” citing the United States as her premier example. Ongoing debates about the status of sexual minorities in the global North, however, can obscure the work of LGBTI activists in the global South, many of whom have met with considerable success in having their demands met in newer democracies. Indeed, queers have not only been folded into these national imagined communities,but in many instances they have become full citizens in the sense of accessing social and political institutions, the rules that shape public policy, and legal rights. However, it is not at all clear what the consequences of incorporation as full citizens are in this most recent transition to homo-friendly states. At the same time, there is a counter-trend of political and social exclusion in other states, exemplified most recently by Russia’s anti-propaganda law. Apt as the idea of a shift may be, the word obscures variation in what inclusion and exclusion purport to mean in different contexts, as well as variation in the impact of legal equality or marginalization among queer subjects themselves along the lines of gender, race, age, class, ability among others. How, then, should we understand the changing status of LGBTI people across contexts?
The first part of this course will address some theories of social movements and identity in order to allow us to examine the construction of sexual and gender identities in non-Western contexts. The second part will introduce themes that affect LGBTI social movements across contexts, including, for example, democratization and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Finally, the course will present case studies from Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Students are encouraged to expand their knowledge of LGBTI movements in other geographic regions in their final paper assignment.
Attendance:
As this is an upper-level undergraduate seminar, I will approach this course as preparation for graduate school or professional settings. Therefore, attendance and active participation are mandatory. I excuse two absences per term without an impact on your grade.
Required Text:
Readings marked with * are compiled a course pack that is available in the bookstore. The other readings are available through MyCoursesor Jstoras indicated.
Evaluation:
a)Weekly comparative paper (2-3 pages, double-spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font) 5%x8=40%
b)Weekly participation=25%
c)Final Comparative Research paper (20-25 pages, double-spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font=35%
This is a reading and writing intensive course designed to familiarize students with the literature on an emerging topic and to practice argumentative essay writing. Please consider the rigor of this course and your other responsibilities before the end of the add/drop period.
Specific guidelines and grading rubrics for the weekly papers and the final research paper will be distributed in class and through MyCourses. Weekly comparative paper assignments are due in class. Late submissions will not be accepted. The final research paper is due in my office on April 22nd.
Please do not email me regarding grades. If you are concerned about your status in the course, please come see me during office hours.
Extra Credit:
On March 13 and 14, the Institute for the Study of International Development is organizing a conference on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. There will be one session taking place on Thursday March 13th and a few sessions on Friday March 14th. Attendance of any session of the conference will earn students extra credit (1.5%) that will count toward their participation grade. At the conference there will be a sign up sheet at each session. Students should put their name, student ID, and signature.
A Note about Discussion:
An objective of this course is to create an environment in which everyone is comfortable discussing issues of gender and sexuality across a variety of contexts. Discussion can occur only after establishing to the greatest extent possible a respectful, non-violent, anti-racist, and queer-positive space for learning. I appreciate your support in constructing this kind of environment in the classroom. This requires attentiveness to others and thoughtfulness in your comments and contributions. This also requires the willingness to give and receive constructive criticism and an openness to self-critique. Be conscious of use of personal experience in discussion, as it may be interpreted in unexpected ways by your classmates and may form a locus of disagreement. Disagreements are welcome and an important aspect of collective knowledge production. I ask you, though, to be mindful of the operation of power inside the classroom. Practically speaking, wait your turn to speak and do not interrupt others. Try to first to understand, then criticize.
Academic integrity:
McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see for more information).
L’Université McGill attaché une haute importance à l’honnêteté académique. Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de comprendre ce que l’on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions académiques, ainsi que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles actions, selon le Code de conduite de l’étudiant et les procédures disciplinaires.
Language:
In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.
En accord avec la Charte des droits de l’étudiant, les étudiants ont le droit de soumettre en anglais ou en français tout travail écrit pour évaluation.
Disability Services:
Students with disabilities should advise the instructor at the start of term, either directly or through the Office for Students with Disabilities. They should also contact the Office for Students with Disabilities (514-398-6009,
Students facing personal issues should consider seeking help at McGill’s Counseling Service (514-398-3601, and should also inform the instructor of any delays likely to occur.
SEMINAR SCHEDULE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
January 7th: What are LGBTI Social Movements?
Recent Trends in LGBTI mobilization
Saner, Emine.2013. “Gay rights Around the World: the Best and Worst Countries for Equality” The Guardian, July 30. (MyCourses)
Drucker, Peter. 1996. “‘In the Tropics There Is No Sin’: Sexuality and Gay–Lesbian Movements in the Third World.” New Left Review I/(218): 75-101.(Jstor)
*Paternotte, David, Manon Tremblay and Carol Johnson. 2011. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-12 in The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State: Comparative Insights into a Transformed Relationship, edited by M. Tremblay, D. Paternotte and C. Johnson. Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
*Piatti-Crocker, Adriana and Jason Pierceson. 2010. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-13 in Same Sex Marriage in the Americas: Policy Innovation for Same-Sex Relationships, edited by J. Pierceson, A. Piatti-Crocker, and S. Schulenberg. Lantham, MD: Lexington Books.
January 14th: Social Movements—Theoretical Perspectives
Political Process Model, Multi-Institutional Approach, Collective Identity, Intersectionality, Queer Theory
Guest Lecture: “The Indigenous Women’s Movement and Intersectionality in Mexico”
*McAdam, Doug, John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald. 1996. “Opportunities, mobilizing structures, and framing processes—toward a synthetic, comparative perspective on social movements.” Pp. 1-20 in Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Structures, and Cultural Framings, edited by D. McAdam, J.D. McCarthy, and M.N. Zald. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Polletta, Francesca and James Jasper. 2001. “Collective Identity and Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology 27: 283-305. (Jstor)
Armstrong, Elizabeth A. and Mary Bernstein. 2008. “Culture, Power, and Institutions: A Multi-Institutional Politics Approach to Social Movements.” Sociological Theory 26(1):1 74-99. (Jstor)
Gamson, Joshua. 1995. “Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma.” Social Problems 42(3):390-407. (Jstor)
January 21st: Constructing Identities—Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex
Boellstorff, Tom. 2005. “Between Religion and Desire: Being Muslim and Gay in Indonesia.” American Anthropologist 107(4):575-85.(Jstor)
Donham, Donald L. 1998. “Freeing South Africa: The ‘Modernization’ of Male-Male Sexuality in Soweto.”Cultural Anthropology 13(1): 3-21. (Jstor)
Dave, Naisargi N. 2010. “To Render Real the Imagined: An Ethnographic History of Lesbian Community in India.” Signs 35:595-619.(Jstor)
Swarr, Amanda L. 2012. “Paradoxes of Butchness: Lesbian Masculinities and Sexual Violence in Contemporary South Africa.” Signs 37(4): 961-988.(Jstor)
Jackson, Peter A. 2001. “Pre-Gay, Post-Queer.”Journal of Homosexuality 40:1-25. (Jstor)
Thoreson, Ryan. “Beyond Equality: The Post-Apartheid Counternarrative of Trans and Intersex Movements in South Africa.” African Affairs 112/449: 646-665.(Jstor)
January 28th: Colonialism, Authoritarianism and Repression
In-class screening: Call Me Kuchu
Brown, Stephen. 2002. “‘Con Discriminación y Repression No Hay Democracia’: The Lesbian and Gay Movement in Argentina.” Latin American Perspectives 29(2): 119-138. (Jstor)
Chua, Lynette J. 2012. “Pragmatic Resistance, Law, and Social Movements in Authoritarian States: The Case of Gay Collective Action in Singapore.” Law and Society Review 46(4): 713-748.(Jstor)
Grekov, Innokenty. 2013. “Russia’s Anti-Gay Law, Spelled Out in Plain English.” Policy Mic( (MyCourses)
February 4th: Democratic Transitions and Human Rights
Cock, Jacklyn. 2003. “Engendering Gay and Lesbian Rights: the Equality Clause in the South African Constitution.” Women’s Studies International Forum 26(1):35 -45. (Jstor)
*De la Dehesa, Rafael. 2010. “Chapter One: On Sexual Subjects and Public Spheres,” “Chapter Two: Occupying the Partisan Field” and “Chapter Three: The Limits of Liberalization.” Pp. 29-112 in Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico and Brazil: Sexual Rights Movements in Emerging Dmeocracies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
*Sharma, Alankaar and Arpita Das. 2011. “India: From Tensions to Transformation.” Pp. 89-101in The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State: Comparative Insights into a Transformed Relationship, edited by M. Tremblay, D. Paternotte and C. Johnson. Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Thoreson, Ryan Richard. 2009. “Queering Human Rights: The Yogyakarta Principles and the Norm That Dare Not Speak Its Name.” Journal of Human Rights 8(4):323-339. (Jstor)
February 11th: HIV/AIDS
*Epprecht, Marc. 2008. “A Puzzling Blindspot, a Troubling Silence, a Strange Consensus: Reflections on the Heterosexual Norm in ‘African AIDS.’” Pp. 1-33 in Heterosexual Africa?: The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
*Hoad, Neville. 2007. “Introduction.”Pp. xi-xxxiii in African Intimacies: Race, Homosexuality, and Globalization. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Torres-Ruiz, Antonio. 2011. “HIV/AIDS and Sexual Minorities in Mexico: AGlobalized Struggle for the Protection of Human Rights.” Latin American Research Review 46 (1): 30-54.(Jstor)
February 18th: International Influences and Transnational networks
Friedman, Elizabeth J. 2012. “Constructing ‘The Same Rights With the Same Names’: The Impact of Spanish Norm Diffusion on Marriage Equality in Argentina.”Latin American Politics and Society 54(4): 29-59. (Jstor)
Thoreson, Ryan Richard. 2012. “Realizing Rights in Manila: Brokers and the Mediation of Sexual Politics in the Philippines” GLQ 18(4): 529-563.(MyCourses)
Massad, Joseph.2002. “Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World.”Public Culture14(2): 361-385.(Jstor)
Manalansan, Martin. 1995. “In the Shadows of Stonewall: Examining Gay Transnational Politics and the Diasporic Dilemma.” GLQ 2: 425-438. (MyCourses)
February 25th: Social Movements and Legal Change—Same-sex relationship recognition
*Khanani, Ahmed and Jean C. Robinson. 2010 “Democracy, Discursive Frames, and Same-Sex Unions: A Cross-National Analysis.” Pp. 15-36 in Same Sex Marriage in the Americas: Policy Innovation for Same-Sex Relationships, edited by J. Pierceson, A. Piatti-Crocker, and S. Schulenberg. Lantham, MD: Lexington Books.
Schulenburg, Shawn. 2012. “The Construction and Enactment of Same-Sex Marriage in Argentina.” Journal of Human Rights 11(1): 106-125. (Jstor)
De Vos, Pierre. 2007. “The ‘Inevitability’ of Same-Sex Marriage in South Africa’s Post-Apartheid State.” South African Journal on Human Rights 23 (3): 432-465.(Jstor)
*Lind, Craig. 2008. “Queering Marriage? The Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships Around the World.” Pp. 284-299 in To Have and To Hold: The Making of Same-Sex Marriage in South Africa, edited by M. Judge, A. Manion and S. de Waal. Cape Town, South Africa: CPT Book Printers.
*Hames, Mary. 2008. “Lesbians and the Civil Union Act: A Critical Reflection.” Pp. 258-267 in To Have and To Hold: The Making of Same-Sex Marriage in South Africa, edited by M. Judge, A. Manion and S. de Waal. Cape Town, South Africa: CPT Book Printers.
*Mkhize, Nonhlanhla. 2008. “(Not) in my Culture: Thoughts on Same-Sex Marriage and African Practices.” Pp. 97-106 in To Have and To Hold: The Making of Same-Sex Marriage in South Africa, edited by M. Judge, A. Manion and S. de Waal. Cape Town, South Africa: CPT Book Printers.
March 4th: Reading Week**No Class**
March 11th: Social Movements and Legal Change—Gender Identity Laws
*Swarr, Amanda Lock. 2012. “Chapter One: Prescribing Gender and Enforcing Sex,” “Chapter Two: Medical Experimentation and the Raced Incongruence of Gender,” and “Chapter Three: Redefining Transition through Necropolitics” Pp. 43-182 in Sex in Transition. New York: SUNY Press.
Global Action for Trans Equality. “English Translation of Argentina’s Gender Identity Law as Approved by the Senate of Argentina on May 8, 2012.” Retrieved July 10, 2013 (
Spade, Dean and RickkeMananzala. 2008. “The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 5(1): 53-71.(Jstor)
March 18th: Sexual Citizenship and Homonationalism(s?)
Castle, Tomi. 2008. “Sexual Citizenship: Articulating Citizenship, Identity, and the Pursuit of the Good Life in Urban Brazil.” PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 31(1):118-33. (Jstor)
*Van Zyl, Mikki. 2009. “Beyond the Constitution: From Sexual Rights to Belonging.” Pp. 364-387 in The Prize and the Price, edited by M. Steyn and M. van Zyl. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press.
*Puar, Jasbir. 2005. “Introduction: Homonationalism and Biopolitics” and “The Sexuality of Terrorism.” Pp. 1-78 in Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Imre, Anikó. 2008. “Lesbian Nationalism.” Signs 33(2): 255-282. (Jstor)
March 25th: Eastern Europe
Binnie, Jon and Christian Klesse. 2012. “Solidarities and Tensions: Feminism and Transnational LGBTQ Politics in Poland.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 19(4): 444-459.(Jstor)
Holzhacker, Ronald. 2013. “State-Sponsored Homophobia and the Denial of the Right of Assembly in Central and Eastern Europe: The ‘Boomerang’ and the ‘Ricochet’ between European Organizations and Civil Society to Uphold Human Rights.” Law and Policy 35(1-2): 1-28.(Jstor)
Underwood, Alice. 2011. “The Politics of Pride: the LGBT Movement and Post-Soviet Democracy.” Harvard International Review 33(1): 42-46.(Jstor)
*Long, Scott. 1999. “Gay and Lesbian Movements in Eastern Europe.” Pp. 242-265 in The Global Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Politics: National Imprints of a Worldwide Movement, edited by B. Adam, J. Duyvendak, and A. Krouwel. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
April 1st:Latin America
In-class screening: Lesbians of Buenos Aires
Encarnación, Omar. 2011. “Latin America’s Gay Rights Revolution.” Journal of Democracy 22 (2): 104-118.
*Díez, Jordi. 2011. “Argentina: A Queer Tango Between the Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State.” Pp.13-25 in The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State: Comparative Insights into a Transformed Relationship, edited by M. Tremblay, D. Paternotte and C. Johnson. Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
*Green, James. 1999. “‘More Love and More Desire’: The Building of a Brazilian Movement.” Pp. 91-109 in The Global Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Politics: National Imprints of a Worldwide Movement, edited by B. Adam, J. Duyvendak, and A. Krouwel. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
April 8th:Africa
Discussion and Course Wrap-up
Hoad, Neville. “Between the White Man's Burden and the White Man's Disease: Tracking Lesbian and gay Human Rights in Southern Africa” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (1999) 5(4):559-584.(MyCourses)
Epprecht, Mark. 2001. “‘What an Abomination, a Rottenness of Culture’: Reflections upon the Gay Rights Movement in Southern Africa.” Canadian Journal ofDevelopment Studies 22 (Special Issue): 1089-1107.(Jstor)
Currier, Ashley. 2011. “Decolonizing the Law: LGBT Organizing in Namibia and South Africa.” Studies in Law, Politics and Society 54: 17-44.(Jstor)
*Palmberg, Mai. 1999. “Emerging Visibility of Gays and Lesbians in Southern Africa.” Pp. 266-292 in The Global Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Politics: National Imprints of a Worldwide Movement, edited by B. Adam, J. Duyvendak, and A. Krouwel. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
**April 22ndFinal papers due**
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