Global queer, mobilization, and NGOs: wins, loses, challenges

Question 1

Buyantueva: What is Russia’s response to Western states seeing LGBT+ rights as a litmus test for states?

Answer 1

They have turned rejecting LGBT+ rights into an indicator of the state’s resistance to Western liberal dominance and as a defense of sovereignty

Question 2

Buyantueva: What two time periods are mentioned regarding Western NGOs involvement in Russian LGBT activism?

Answer 2

Late 1980s to mid-1990s: Closer relations to the West, relied heavily on Western donors

Mid-2000s: wider geographical presence, relied less heavily on western donors but still established connections and received material and non-material foreign aid

Question 3

Buyantueva: What are the 3 benefits for Russian LGBT activists of connecting with Western NGOs?

Answer 3

1. Informational coverage of events, knowledge exchange, and moral support
2. Financial assistance
3. Introduction to tactics and strategies

Question 4

Buyantueva: What are the 4 drawbacks of connecting to Western NGOs for Russian LGBT activists?

Answer 4

1. Western assistance does not always account for local realities and offer aid for projects that do not correspond to the needs and interests of local LGBT communities
2. Western NGOs want to see results, so mostly sponsor public events or events focused on visibility
3. Can cause a social and political backlash, for example Moscow Pride (attacked by homophobes, arrested by police)
4. Stigmatizing Russian queer activists for being a “product of the West”

Question 5

Buyantueva: How has Russia developed recently to push against Western influence?

Answer 5

They have promoted conservatism and “traditional values”, arguing that their survival and sovereignty depends on resisting influence from the West

Have adopted “foreign agent” law (registering if receive support from abroad) and “undesirable organizations” (org. that threaten security, public order, and health)

Question 6

Buyantueva: What is the isomorphic effect that Russia displays?

Answer 6

Using frames similar to those employed by opponents -> Kremlin employs human rights discourses but interprets fundamental freedoms as traditional values

Question 7

Buyantueva: What are the 3 effects for Russian LGBT activists of the recent Russian turn to conservatism and traditional values?

Answer 7

1. Hinders support by Western NGOs as Russians fear prosecution, while no national funding source available to replace it
2. Increased homophobia and violence, as laws have singled out LGBT people and activists as a public threat
3. Lack of strategy from Russian activists or the West in how to procede

Question 8

Velasco (1): What is deinstitutionalization of LGBT+ norms?

Answer 8

The weakening of LGBT+ norms’ legitimacy and perceived universality and appropriateness

Question 9

Velasco (1): What mechanisms do anti-LGBT+ networks use to oppose liberal norms?

Answer 9

They co-opt liberal strategies and discourses such as international conferences, lobbying, human rights language, scientific discourse, and transnational organizing

Question 10

Velasco (1): What are the 3 main frames anti-LGBT+ networks use?

Answer 10

1. LGBT+ threatens the traditional family and gender roles
2. LGBT+ threatens national sovereignty and self-determination, as it is framed as an external imposition by the West
3. LGBT+ threaten children’s well-being and reproduction itself

Question 11

Velasco (1): What is antithetical vernacularization?

Answer 11

Anti-LGBT actors “translate” global norms into locally resonant frames opposing LGBT+rights, leading to the population perceiving LGBT as threats which motivates a state response -> for example, human rights norms

Question 12

Velasco (1): What is “forum shopping”?

Answer 12

Strategic targeting of favorable national contexts to win victories that can be highlighted as wins and used for further transnational diffusion

Question 13

Why is identifying anti-LGBT INGOs difficult?

Answer 13

Because they often use liberal, rights-based language to disguise anti-LGBT positions and blending into mainstream international discourse

Question 14

Velasco (1): What does his typology of state responses include?

Answer 14

Status quo (low presence of both LGBT and anti-LGBT networks)

Compliance (high LGBT, low anti-LGBT)

Defiance (low LGBT, high anti-LGBT)

Contestation (high LGBT, high anti-LGBT)

Question 15

Velasco (1): What is the global paradox that Velasco identifies?

Answer 15

The international liberal system created structures to diffuse liberal norms that illiberal actors now use to promote anti-LGBT norms, weakening liberal dominance from within. Therefore, the assumed unidirectionality of liberal norm diffusion is contested

Question 16

Velasco (1): How is backlash linked to global LGBT+ norm strength?

Answer 16

As LGBT+ norms expand, opposition grows, making backlash increasingly probable

Question 17

Velasco (1): How does the development of the anti-LGBT network facilitate backlash? (2)

Answer 17

1. Provide material resources and discursive frames to local allies
2. Opens up permission structures for political leaders to engage in political homophobia/transphobia

Question 18

Kole: What are the two key forces that shaped queer mobilization in India?

Answer 18

Globalization/economic liberalization and the HIV/AIDS epidemic -> shifted queer mobilization toward a donor-driven and AIDS-induced agenda

Question 19

Kole: What picture has the West painted of India during the AIDS epidemic?

Answer 19

As inferior, sexually repressed and in need to be “developed” and “freed” to become more comfortable with sexuality to discuss sex openly and reduce HIV

Question 20

Kole: The framing of India as sexually repressed meant that much NGO funding was preconditioned on

Answer 20

Promoting sexual rights and work with marginalized communities such as queers, sex workers, or drug users using Western identity categories and strategies of visibility

Question 21

Kole: What is bad about Western donor influence on Indian LGBT activism? (3)

Answer 21

1. Donors imposed Western LGBT identities, erasing indigenous sexual cultures and diversities which has always existed in India
2. Supported Western initiatives such as “coming out” and confrontational politics, ignoring how this does not fit into the reality for many queers in India
3. Tied donations to amount of HIV/AIDS cases, leading to inflation of numbers in order to receive more funds

Question 22

Kole: What is “confessional tradition” in LGBT activism and why is confrontational queerness problematic in the Indian case?

Answer 22

Coming out -> in India started by South Asian queer diasporic communities

Can expose Indian queers to greater risk, because it clashes with family and community-oriented social norms and may worsen homophobia and lead to loss of social and economic support structures -> does not take into account socio-economic and cultural norms

Question 23

Kole: How has the Indian government reacted to queer mobilization?

Answer 23

It has strenghtened “homophobic” discourses of heterosexist nationalism in India

Government has done repression (raids, arrests, censorship, criminalization)

Question 24

Kole: What should be the true spirit of rights-based approaches?

Answer 24

Respect indigenous sexual diversities without imposing Western identity models and confrontational queerness

Stopping emphasis on sexual routes of transmission of HIV/AIDS and focus on non-sexual routes, such as non-sterile medical injections

Question 25

Velasco (2): What is the paradox that Velasco seeks to investigate?

Answer 25

Why LGBT policies are diverging globally (both pro- and anti-LGBT+ policies thriving) despite growing global norms of pro-LGBT+

Question 26

Velasco (2): What are the two theories that he applies to understand LGBT norm divergence?

Answer 26

Neo-institutionalism: adopting appropriate global norms through socialization in world society Realism: Foreign aid changes incentive structure of states which violates state autonomy

Question 27

Velasco (2): How do transnational advocacy networks influence LGBT policy adoption?

Answer 27

Socialize states into global pro-LGBT norms through INGOs, UN, and civil society, increasing pro-LGBT policies -> integration and centrality in TANs positively affect adoption of pro-LGBT policies

Question 28

Velasco (2): How does foreign aid conditionality affect LGBT policy adoption?

Answer 28

Foreign aid with conditionalities has a negative interaction effect -> as global LGBT norms rise, countries depending on aid resist more Perceived as Western imperialism and violating self-determination

Question 29

Velasco (2): What is political homophobia and how is it related to foreign aid dependency?

Answer 29

When domestic audiences view LGBT norms as a threat, politicians strategically use anti-LGBT rhetoric to oppose international pressure to adopt LGBT+ legislation to gain domestic support Countries with higher dependence on foreign aid may feel more exposed and at risk to LGBT norms from the international community, increasing demand for political homophobia

Question 30

Velasco (2): What policy advise does Velasco give based on his findings?

Answer 30

Invest in local LGBT civil society rather than using coercive foreign aid conditions