Lecture Series Diversity, Gender & Intersectionality

Klapeer, Christine (2024). Beitrag in der Diskussion zu: Queer Politics in Troubled Times?!Politikwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Debatten und Kämpfe um sexuelle und geschlechtliche Selbstbestimmung (20.11.2024, https://www.dvpw.de/veranstaltungen/politikwissenschaft-im-gespraech

Schaffar, Wolfram (2020). “I am not here for fun”: The satirical Facebook group Royalist Marketplace, queer TikToking, and the new democracy movement in Thailand: An interview with Pavin Chachavalpongpun. Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 14(1), 129-137. https://aseas.univie.ac.at/index.php/aseas/article/view/5081

This lecture reconstructs the history of the social and political emancipation of LGBT/queer people. I trace the development of identity and political subjectivity while critically examining the different strategies employed in the fight against persecution and for recognition.

Since the shift toward the civil rights movement paradigm, emancipation movements worldwide have adopted the strategy of demanding the fulfillment of liberal democracy’s promises. To this end, they have engaged with its institutional mechanisms—such as parliamentary work, human rights declarations, and judicial activism.

More recently, new challenges have emerged: anti-gender and anti-LGBTIQ ideologies have become a unifying force for right-wing and fascist movements worldwide. This presents qualitatively new problems for LGBTIQ and queer individuals and movements. How can the freedoms they have fought for be safeguarded when the struggle is no longer just against forces operating within the liberal democratic system, but when the very foundation of liberal democracy is at risk—both nationally and internationally? And what strategies can be pursued when LGBTIQ individuals (involuntarily) become symbols of a (Western) liberal order and are attacked as such?

In the field of queer studies, the universality of LGBTI/queer identities and the (neo)colonial dominance within the epistemic communities and movements have long been explored through contested concepts such as homonationalism. With the arrival of numerous refugees in 2015 and 2016—many fleeing due to their sexual orientation—these discussions took on new dimensions.

In this lecture, I will examine the mobilization of civil society during the "long summer of migration" and the theoretical debates that followed.

For a long time, LGBTQ+ people in Thailand were mainly visible in the entertainment industry - as eye-catching, often caricatured figures in fashion, film and comedy, but not as serious political actors. Their presence in the media concealed the social reality: it meant neither recognition nor legal equality, but rather reproduced stereotypical narratives, exoticisation and otherness.

This changed fundamentally with the democracy movement of 2020-2021, which was supported by young activists. LGBTQ+ activists stepped out of their supposed niche and became central actors in political protest. With queer symbolism, creative forms of protest and memes on social media platforms, they reached young people in particular and had a lasting impact on the democracy movement.  However, their activities were not without opposition - both from conservative forces and within the democracy movement itself. Nevertheless, their commitment left a lasting mark.

This lecture takes a critical look at the role of LGBTQ+ actors in Thailand's political scene - as an integral part of current struggles for democracy, human rights and social justice.

Trans* people are at the centre of the right-wing ‘culture war’, which is closely articulated with class relations. Against the simple juxtaposition of ‘identity’ vs. ‘class’, materialist, identity-critical trans*feminist analyses focus on the intersectional class and violence relations that characterise trans* lifestyles and trans* social reproduction. Is a different articulation of trans* and class emerging at the ‘end of progressive neoliberalism’ (Nancy Fraser)? What perspectives emerge from the practices of trans* world making for emancipatory transformation in times of authoritarian neoliberalism?

Becker, Lia; Katharina Pühl und Atlanta Ina Beyer (2024): Bite back! Queere Prekarität, Klasse und unteilbare Solidarität. Münster: edition assemblage

Thailand—like many countries in Southeast Asia—has a reputation for being particularly queer-friendly. Thai culture recognizes a third gender, and kathoey enjoy a certain level of social acceptance. There is a lively gay party scene, and the tourism industry, which is vital to the economy, has long promoted the country as a gay haven.

However, modernization and globalization have brought contradictory social developments. The AIDS crisis hit Thailand particularly hard, and despite social tolerance, LGBTIQ* individuals have faced exclusion from education, various professions, and key social positions. Against this backdrop, a unique history of struggle for emancipation and recognition has unfolded, reflected in both film and literature.

In her lecture, Arnika Fuhrmann traces the stages of queer movements in Thailand. In the subsequent discussion, she and Wolfram Schaffar will explore how these developments fit into the broader context of global LGBTIQ and queer movements.

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.

 Aung Zaw Myo. (2023). Spring Revolution: New Opening(s) and Old Heteronormative Narratives. Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship, 4(1). https://ijbs.online/?page_id=4642

In the past three decades, remarkable progress has been made in numerous countries for the rights of individuals marginalized due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. The advancements in LGBTI rights in a variety of diverse countries can largely be attributed to the tireless efforts of the transnational LGBTI-rights movement, forward-thinking governments in pioneering nations, and the evolving human rights frameworks of international organizations. However, this journey towards equality has been met with formidable opposition. An increasingly interconnected and globally networked resistance, backed by religious-nationalist elements and conservative governments, has emerged to challenge LGBTI and women's rights, even seeking to reinterpret and co-opt international human rights law.

In this lecture, Phillip Ayoub draws on his new book with Kristina Stöckl to investigate this complex landscape, drawing from over a decade of in-depth fieldwork with LGBTI activists, anti-LGBTI proponents, and various state and international organization actors. Moral conservative TANs have employed many of the same transnational tools that garnered LGBTIQ people their widespread recognition. As the double-helix metaphor suggests, rival TANs have a reciprocal relationship, having to navigate each other’s presence in an interactive space and thus using related strategies and instruments for mutually exclusive ends.

In the past three decades, remarkable progress has been made in numerous countries for the rights of individuals marginalized due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. The advancements in LGBTI rights in a variety of diverse countries can largely be attributed to the tireless efforts of the transnational LGBTI-rights movement, forward-thinking governments in pioneering nations, and the evolving human rights frameworks of international organizations. However, this journey towards equality has been met with formidable opposition. An increasingly interconnected and globally networked resistance, backed by religious-nationalist elements and conservative governments, has emerged to challenge LGBTI and women's rights, even seeking to reinterpret and co-opt international human rights law.

In this lecture, Phillip Ayoub draws on his new book with Kristina Stöckl to investigate this complex landscape, drawing from over a decade of in-depth fieldwork with LGBTI activists, anti-LGBTI proponents, and various state and international organization actors. Moral conservative TANs have employed many of the same transnational tools that garnered LGBTIQ people their widespread recognition. As the double-helix metaphor suggests, rival TANs have a reciprocal relationship, having to navigate each other’s presence in an interactive space and thus using related strategies and instruments for mutually exclusive ends.

 Ayoub, Philip, and Kristina Stoeckl (2024): The Global Fight Against LGBTI Rights. How Transnational Conservative Networks Target Sexual and Gender Minorities. New York University Press.

Presentation highlights the evolution of Ukrainian LGBTQ+ activism from the Revolution of Dignity to the ongoing fight for freedom and equality in the context of war. It examines the role of the LGBTQ+ community in civil society, including its active participation in the Maidan protests, volunteer initiatives, and military resistance against Russian aggression. Special attention is given to the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ servicemembers, their contribution to military reform, and the struggle for equal rights within the armed forces.

The presentation will also analyze the impact of Russian propaganda in discrediting the LGBTQ+ community and fueling hatred both in Ukraine and beyond. It will demonstrate how Ukrainian queer activism has become not only a part of the fight for democracy but also a driving force behind social change, gaining international recognition and support.

 Sergey Kosilkin, Aleksandr Kochekovskii. Edited by: Anna Eroshenko, Andrey Ditzel (2024): LGBTQ+ rights in the belligerent Russia. Berlin: Quarteera e.V. https://www.quarteera.de/en/projects/die_lage_von_lgbtq_personen_im_kriegsfuehrenden_russland/

LGBTQ-Activism as Human Right Defence: History and Present of its Discourses and Practices in the Belligerent Russia
The illuminating history of LGBTQ activism in Russia collides with the history of Putinist Russia as an example of a rapid slide to right-wing conservative authoritarianism based on hate speech, homophopia and aggressive war. The lecture will cover two main sides of LGBTQ activism in Russia: on the one hand, facing and reflecting on particular types of vulnerability in the context of Russian legal system and public institutes, and on the other hand, the activists' elaboration of discources and practices for negotiating and advocating for new legal norms to protect individuals, and society as a whole, from normalization of inequality and violence. In the lecture, both these sides will be traced from the struggle for queer-people's rights as an essential part of post-Soviet transformations to the transformations of activist practices under repression and in relation to anti-war agenda in the belligerent Russia in the past thres years.

What do the attacks on drag readings in Germany have to do with Putin's statement on the ‘degeneration of Gayropa’ and Trump's executive order entitled ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology’? This talk will provide a transnational perspective on current political mobilizations and attacks on LGBTIQ+ rights and LGBTIQ+ activism, particularly focusing on the political significance of the narrative of an alleged 'gender ideology'. The presentation will analyze how 'gender' and 'gender ideology' function as transnational meta-languages, and are key for the formation of border-crossing alliances between ideologically diverse political actors. It will also be discussed how parts of the LGBTIQ+ movement have become complicit with anti-gender mobilizations, thereby exploring the ‘blurred boundaries’ (Beck et al. 2023) between anti-gender campaigns and LGBTIQ+ politics.