Part of the lecture series: "Queer between the frontlines: LGBTIQ*-Politics and Mobilisations in a Translocal Perspective"
The military staged coup on Feb 1, 2021 in Burma. It introduced authoritarian regime back again after a honeymoon period of "disciplined democracy". Hundreds of thousands of people, including Burmese queer people, marched on the streets across the country and showed their disapproval of the military's takeover. After several months, many youths decided to take military training from ethnic armed groups and since then, an armed struggle began. My interview subjects are part of this armed struggle, playing different roles, from fundraising, cooking to fighting on the battleground as People's Defence Forces members.
How is LGBTQ/queer activism interconnected with the larger anti-military resistance movement, locally known as Spring Revolution? This lecture will introduce how my interview subjects and LGBTQ/queer activists created counterpublics through protests. The wording, LGBTQ, came along together with the wide spread access to internet and The Gay International, coined by Joseph Massad. However, Burmese queer people showed that they are not "passive agents of the West". Instead, the nascent queer activism molded itself in a newly changed socio-political context which is militaristic and centers around hegemonic masculinity. Testimonials of my interview subjects will shed a light on how they apply old and new strategies in different temporalities of such queer times in Burma. Additionally, this lecture will address the still-unmet aspirations and expectations surrounding queer issues in the context of Spring's Revolution.
Speaker: Aung Zaw Myo, Central European University, Vienna
| Open to | all |
|---|---|
| Prior registration | requested |
| Organised by | Executive Support Unit for Diversity and Gender Equality, Chair of Development Politics |
| Event website | https://www.uni-passau.de/en/diversity-gender-equality/diversity/lecture-series-diversity-gender-intersectionality |
| Contact organizer of event | diversity@uni-passau.de |
