Sexual Identities Queer Politics

In this collection, political and public policy analysts explore the social concerns of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered--what has come to be known as "lgbt" or "queer" politics. Compared to the humanities and to other social sciences, political science has been slow to address this phenomenon. Issues ranging from housing to adoption to laws on sodomy, however, have increasingly raised important political questions about the rights and status of sexual minorities, particularly within liberal democracies such as the United States, and also on an international level. This anthology offers the first comprehensive overview of the study of lgbt politics in political science across the discipline's main subfields and methodologies, and it spotlights lgbt movements in several regions around the world. Focusing on the politics of sexuality with regard to the politics of knowledge, the book presents a discussion of power that will interest all political scientists and others concerned with minority rights and gender as well as with transformation in the relations between public and private. The articles cover such topics as lgbt power in urban politics, the impact of public opinion on lgbt life, means of effecting legal and political change in the United States, and international differences in lgbt political activism. The authors represent a new cadre of political scientists who are creating an interdisciplinary domain of research that is informed by and in turn generates political activism. They are Dennis Altman, M. V. Lee Badgett, Robert W. Bailey, Mark Blasius, Cathy J. Cohen, Timothy E. Cook, Paisley Currah, Juanita Díaz-Cotto, Jan-Willem Duyvendak, Leonard Harris, Bevin Hartnett, Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, David Rayside, Rebecca Mae Salokar, and Alan S. Yang.

In this collection, political and public policy analysts explore the concerns of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered--what has come to be known as "lgbt" or "queer" politics. Issues ranging from legal equality, to recognition in policymaking of family and relational diversity, to the regulation of sexuality itself, are explored.

This book analyses the critical reception of Pai Hsien-yung'sCrystal Boys, one of Taiwan's first recognized gay novels and one which has played an important role in redefining sexual modernity and linking this to ongoing cultural dialogues on state-building. It examines the deployment of sexuality over the past five decades in Taiwan by paying particular attention to male homosexuality and prostitution. In addition to literary and film material, the study engages a number of relevant legal cases and media reports. Through Hans Huang's primary research and historical investigations, the book not only illuminates the construction of gendered sexual identities in Taiwanese culture but also, in a reflexive fashion, critiques the culture that produces them. Hans Tao-Ming Huangis assistant professor in the English Department, National Central University, Taiwan.

In the last 15 years, queer movements in many parts of the world have helped secure the rights of queer people. These moments have been accompanied by the brutal rise of crony capitalism, the violent consequences of the ‘war on terror’, the hyper-juridification of politics, the financialization/ managerialization of social movements and the medicalization of non-heteronormative identities/ practices. How do we critically read the celebratory global proliferation of queer rights in these neoliberal times? This volume responds to the complicated moment in the history of queer struggles by analysing laws, state policies and cultures of activism, to show how new intimacies between queer sexuality and neoliberalism that celebrate modernity and the birth of the liberated sexual citizen, are in fact, reproducing the old colonial desire of civilizing the native. By paying particular attention to the problematics of race, religion and class, this volume engages in a rigorous, self-reflexive critique of global queer politics and its engagements, confrontations, and negotiations with modernity and its investments in liberalism, legalism and militarism, with the objective of queering the ethics of our queer politics. Published by Zubaan.

The Global Trajectories of Queerness critically investigates the circulation of the term “queer” in the Global South, its political economy underpinnings and its cultural politics. The collection offers theorizations and detailed ethnographies of contemporary same-sex culture in sixteen countries.

Queer by Choice enters the controversial debate of sexual identity by examining choice in gay men and lesbian sexual identity. Drawing on interviews with a sample of 72 people, Whisman analyzes if, and to what extent, choice played a role in determining identity. Contributing factors such as race, class, religion, and educational level are considered. The results of the study are stimulating and often surprising, and contribute to the escalating debates over sexual identity as lesbians and gays continue to soldier for rights and representation.

The dynamics of identity politics frequently have been studied from the perspective of 'outsider' groups, those outside the bounds of the imagined community. But how does this dynamic play out in the construction of the 'national imaginary'? This book helps reformulate how we use rights - to what end and through what means.

The last five years have witnessed the birth of a vibrant new group of young scholars who are writing about queer law, politics, and policy--topics which are no longer treated as of interest only to lesbians and gay men, but which now garner the attention of political theorists of all stripes. Playing With Fire--the first scholarly collection on queer politics by US political theorists--opens the intersection of lesbian and gay studies and political theory to a wide audience. It covers a wide range of issues, including: the theory of queer identities; the contrasts among ethnic, racial, and sexual identities; the debate between liberals and communitarians; the right to privacy; and the meaning of equal citizenship.