LGBT and Queer Politics in the Commonwealth

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Waites
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Sex Characteristics ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Subsequent Formation ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Heads Of Government

The Commonwealth is the international governmental organization of states that emerged from the British empire, and since 2000 it has emerged as a focus for contestation relating to the regulation of same-sex sexualities, gender diversity, and diverse sex characteristics. Following colonial criminalizations focused on same-sex sexual acts, and later formal decolonizations, there have appeared many national movements for decriminalization and human rights in relation to sexuality and gender. The Commonwealth has emerged as a site of politics for some significant actors claiming human rights in relation to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics. This has been led by specific organizations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, increasingly with intersex people and allies, but it is also important to consider this in relation to queer people, understood more broadly here as people in all cultures experiencing forms of sexualities, biological sex and genders outside the social structure of heterosexuality, and its associated sex and gender binaries. A range of forms of activist and non-governmental organization (NGO) engagement have occurred, leading to shifts in Commonwealth civil society and among some state governments. This has required researchers to develop analyses across various scales, from local and national to international and transnational, to interpret institutions and movements. The British Empire criminalized same-sex sexual acts between males, and to a lesser extent between females, across its territories. In certain instances there were also forms of gender regulation, constraining life outside a gender binary. Such criminalization influenced some of those claiming LGBT human rights to engage the Commonwealth. Research shows that a majority of Commonwealth states continue to criminalize some adult consensual same-sex sexual activity. Yet the history of struggles for decriminalization and human rights within states in the Commonwealth has led up to such recent important decriminalizations as in India and Trinidad and Tobago in 2018. LGBT and queer activist engagements of the Commonwealth itself commenced in 2007 when Sexual Minorities Uganda and African allies demanded entry to the Commonwealth People’s Space during a Heads of Government meeting in Kampala. Activism has often focused on the biannual Heads of Government meetings that are accompanied by civil society forums. A particularly significant phenomenon has been the emergence of a “new London-based transnational politics of LGBT human rights,” evident in the creation from 2011 of new NGOs working internationally from the United Kingdom. Among these organizations was the Kaleidoscope Trust, which shaped the subsequent formation of The Commonwealth Equality Network as an international network of NGOs that became formally recognized by the Commonwealth. Significant developments occurred at the London Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in April 2018; Prime Minister Theresa May expressed “regret” for past imperial criminalizations while announcing funding for Kaleidoscope Trust and other UK-based groups to use in international law reform work. These developments exemplify a wider problematic for both activists and analysts, concerning how LGBT and queer movements should engage in contexts that are still structured by imperial legacies and power relations associated with colonialism, persisting in the present.

Intersex

Sociology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Disorders Of Sex Development ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Sex Characteristics ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Sex Development ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
And Gender

Intersex people are described by United Nations institutions as born with variations of sex characteristics that differ from medical and social norms for female or male bodies (see, for example, the 2019 report “Human Rights Violations against Intersex People,” by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights). These variations are diverse and innate. Intersex human rights defenders and human rights institutions challenge the stigma and discrimination that intersex people face because of their physical variations, but few jurisdictions so far have tackled the human rights violations that intersex people suffer. There are multiple additional, contested, and incommensurate lenses through which intersex people are viewed. These express different values and beliefs about the same people, including their meaning, treatment, concerns, and demands. Medical lenses view intersex traits as “disorders of sex development” (DSD), and people with those traits are viewed as female or male and subjects for treatment. Anthropology and queer and gender studies have viewed intersex as an illustration of fallacies that underpin subjective cultural norms for sex and gender. Law increasingly views intersex people as members of a third sex. Historical research shows that intersex people, often termed hermaphrodites, have always existed, and often been accommodated.

scholarly journals Sex and Gender Diversity in Southeast Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 357
Author(s):  
Douglas Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Discrimination In Employment ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Legal Sex

The United Nations human rights system has recognized rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual,  transgender and intersex individuals (LGBTI), with key decisions in 2011 and 2016. To what  extent are the rights of these groupings respected in Southeast Asia? The visibility of LGBTI is  low in Southeast Asia and government attitudes vary.  Criminal laws, both secular and Sharia,  in some jurisdictions, have prohibitions, but active enforcement is rare. Discrimination in employment is prohibited by law in Thailand and in local laws in the Philippines. Change of  legal ‘sex’ for transgender individuals is sometimes possible. Legal recognition of same-sex relationships has been proposed in Thailand and the Philippines, but not yet enacted. Marriage has been opened to same-sex couples in neighboring Taiwan. Laws on adoption and surrogacy generally exclude same-sex couples. So-called ‘normalizing surgery’ on intersex babies needs to be deferred to the child’s maturity, to protect their health and rights.

State Obligations in Relation to Gender Identity and Rights of Same-Sex Couples

2021 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 277-462
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Name Change ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
And Gender

277Human rights — Gender identity — Rights of same-sex couples — State obligations concerning recognition of gender identity and rights of same-sex couples — American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Right to equality and non-discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons — Article 1(1) of American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Whether sexual orientation and gender identity protected categories under Article 1(1) — Right to gender identity — Right to a name — Whether States under obligation to facilitate name change based on gender identity — Whether failure to establish administrative procedures for name change violating American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Whether name change procedure under Article 54 of Civil Code of Costa Rica complying with American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Right to equality and non-discrimination — Right to protection of private and family life — Right to family — Whether States obliged to recognize patrimonial rights arising from a same-sex relationship — Whether States required to establish legal institution to regulate same-sex relationshipsInternational tribunals — Jurisdiction — Inter-American Court of Human Rights — Advisory jurisdiction — Whether advisory jurisdiction restricted by related petitions before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — Admissibility — Whether request meeting formal and substantive requirements — Whether Court having jurisdiction

11. Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine (Cricket) Keating ◽  
Cynthia Burack
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Important Development ◽  
Queer People ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Rights Issues

This chapter examines the issue of the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer people (LGBTI). In recent years, LGBTI groups have used the language and frameworks of human rights to organize against state, civil society, religious, and interpersonal violence and discrimination. The broadening of the human rights framework to address issues of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) has been an important development in both the human rights and the LGBTI movements. The chapter begins with a discussion of SOGI rights as human rights, focusing on questions such as the central human rights issues for LGBTI people; how these groups have organized to address these challenges through a human rights framework; and the challenges faced by LGBTI human rights advocates and what successes they have had. It also considers critiques of SOGI human rights activism and concludes with a case study of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

scholarly journals What Does it Mean to be a Woman in Sports? An Analysis of the Jurisprudence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-411
Author(s):  
Lena Holzer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Sports Law ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Caster Semenya ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Dispute ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Definition Of

ABSTRACT This article explores the definition of ‘sportswoman’ as put forward in the Caster Semenya case (2019) and the Dutee Chand case (2015) before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It analyses the structural and discursive factors that made it possible for the CAS to endorse a definition that reduces sex and gender to a matter concerning testosterone. By relying on the concept of intersectionality and analytical sensibilities from Critical Legal Studies, the article shows that framing the cases as a matter of scientific dispute, instead of as concerning human rights, significantly influenced the CAS decisions. Moreover, structural elements of international sports law, such as the lack of knowledge of human rights among CAS arbitrators and a history of institutionalising gendered and racialised body norms through sporting regulations, further aided the affirmation of the ‘testosterone rules’.

Conflicts Within the Anglican Communion

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Gay Marriage ◽  
First Century ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
The West ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Church

The churches of the Anglican Communion discussed issues of sex and gender throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. Arguments about gender focused on the ordination of women to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopate. Debates about sexuality covered polygamy, divorce and remarriage, and homosexuality. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, these debates became intensely focused on homosexuality and were particularly fierce as liberals and conservatives responded to openly gay bishops and the blessing and marriage of same-sex couples. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the sex and gender debates had become less acrimonious, the Anglican Communion had not split on these issues as some feared, but the ‘disconnect’ between society and the Church, at least in the West, on issues such as the Church of England’s prevarication on female bishops and opposition to gay marriage, had decreased the Church’s credibility for many.

scholarly journals TheZenne: Male Belly Dancers and Queer Modernity in Contemporary Turkey

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOANNA MANSBRIDGE
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
First Century ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Trans People ◽  
Turkish Culture ◽  
Belly Dancing ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores the history and contemporary revival of male belly dancers –zenneorköçek– in Turkey and in cities with large Turkish populations, such as Berlin. What does the current revival of male belly dancing tell us about the relationship between modern ideologies of sex and gender and narratives of modernity as they have taken shape in Turkey? Thezennedancer embodies the contradictions of contemporary Turkish culture, which includes a variety of same-sex practices, along with sexual taxonomies that have developed in collusion with discourses of modernity. The revival ofzennedancing can be seen as part of a series of global transformations in the visibility of gay, lesbian, and trans people in popular culture and public discourse. However, it is also an unpredicted consequence of the Justice and Development Party's (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP) purposeful revival and romanticization of Turkey's Ottoman past, which has been ahistorically remembered as more pious than the present. Re-emerging in the twenty-first century as an embodiment of competing definitions of sexuality and modernity in contemporary Turkey, precisely at a moment when Turkish national identity is a hotly contested issue, thezennedancer is queer ghost, returning to haunt (and seduce) the present.

The Church’s Dilemma

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Dillon
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Women's Equality ◽  
Women's Ordination ◽  
And Gender

This chapter presents a thematic analysis of official Church discourse on sex and gender—issues central to Catholicism and, beyond religion, publicly salient to contemporary questions of personal identity and social relationships. Focusing on abortion, same-sex relationships, and women’s ordination, it assesses the postsecular attunement of the Church’s respective arguments, and it notes the continuities between its reasoning on abortion and on social justice. The chapter argues that Pope Francis is symbolically disrupting Church discourse by recalibrating the Church’s public priorities, moving them away from sexual issues, offering a more compassionate framing of abortion, and using a more inclusive vocabulary, as well as meaningful silences on gay sexuality. His stance on women’s ordination, by contrast, especially the continuing ban on its discussion, defies postsecular expectations. The chapter probes the tensions in Francis’s construal of women’s equality and concludes by highlighting how clericalism may perpetuate Church officials’ biased understanding of women.

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