Matthew Farmer

This book contributes an analysis of UK-based non-governmental organisations engaged in transnational lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) activism, within a broader recognition of the complexities that British colonial legacies perpetuate in contemporary international relations. From this analysis, the book suggests that greater engagement with intersectional and decolonial approaches to transnational activism would allow for a more transformative solidarity that challenges the broader impacts of coloniality on LGBT people’s lives globally. Case studies are used to explore UK actors’ participation in the complexities of contemporary transnational LGBT activism, including activist responses to developments in Brunei between 2014 and 2019, and the use of LGBT aid conditionality by Western governments. Activist engagements with legacies of British colonialism are also explored, including a focus on ‘sodomy laws’ and the Commonwealth, as well as the challenges faced by LGBT people seeking asylum in the UK.

Available at: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030453763

Since 2011, a number of new UK-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have emerged with a commitment to transnational lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) activism, with some existing organisations adopting new strategies to engage with international LGBTI issues. This new wave of engagement in transnational LGBTI activism has emerged in a context of increased attention to LGBTI issues globally. LGBTI rights are debated in international forums, including the United Nations, with widespread condemnation of developments such as Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill (2009) and later Anti-Homosexuality Act (2014) continuing to fuel international discourses concerned with LGBTI rights. Underlying contemporary UK-based engagements in transnational LGBTI activism is a history of colonialism that was responsible for the implementation of legal, social, and cultural systems of control that continue to influence the criminalisation of LGBTI populations worldwide. This thesis con...

Farmer explores the ways in which sexual orientation and gender identity politics are negotiated and contested in international relations in order to highlight the contemporary international contexts in which UK-based NGOs and other actors participate. The chapter examines the ways in which LGBT rights are contested at the United Nations, noting how coalitions of states have attempted to either advance or restrict rights protections for sexual and gender minorities. The development of the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act (2014) is also used as a case study to highlight how some states attempt to restrict LGBT rights as part of broader attempts to strengthen domestic political control, as well as how transnational networks have been used in opposition to LGBT rights. The chapter concludes with an examination of the ways in which simplistic understandings of global homophobias and the homonationalist deployment of LGBT rights by Western states, contribute to a pinkwashed European modern...

Farmer uses this chapter to examine the key conceptual terms that are deployed in the analysis of the book to produce an argument for an intersectional, decolonial approach to transnational LGBT activism. Farmer examines literature concerned with NGOs and transnational advocacy movements to foreground the focus on NGOs and their participation in transnational networks throughout the book. Also, given the focus on legacies of colonialism and the perpetuation of coloniality in international relations, the chapter defines these terms, drawing on postcolonialism and decoloniality to highlight how European modernity/coloniality presents challenges for contemporary transnational LGBT activism. The chapter also engages with concepts that interrogate the intersections of nationalism, sexuality, gender and race: heteronormativity, homonormativity, heteronationalism and homonationalism, and how they are used to critique contemporary intersections in international relations. Farmer also draws ...

Farmer explores the historical development of European problematisations and criminalisations of same-sex sexual activity and how these influenced British imperial sexual discourses that imposed legal mechanisms of control across its colonies. The production of knowledge about ‘the Orient’ is examined, noting how ideas about gender, sexuality and race contributed to justifying imperial interventions as a ‘civilising mission’, part of a broader pattern of European concepts of modernity justifying coloniality and oppression. The chapter provides relevant historical context to contemporary transnational activism strategies concerned with decriminalisation in formerly colonised states. Farmer argues that it is necessary to recognise the ways in which historical justifications for coloniality continue to impact on contemporary international relations, so that problematic reproductions of coloniality can be challenged in the pursuit of LGBT rights globally.

Farmer explores the ways in which UK-based NGOs engage with UK governmental actors on international LGBT issues to provide a more comprehensive understanding of UK-based contributions to transnational LGBT activism. The chapter focuses on the establishment of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT Rights, as well as the international interventions of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Department for International Development. Farmer provides a detailed examination of UK governmental and NGO participation in LGBT aid conditionality, arguing that UK actors failed to adequately contextualise contemporary LGBT rights within a broader understanding of aid relations and coloniality.

Farmer offers a detailed examination of the main UK-based NGOs engaged in transnational LGBT activism, noting the broad range of strategies used across the space. The chapter opens by introducing the main UK-based NGOs examined in the book, including Kaleidoscope Trust, Human Dignity Trust, Peter Tatchell Foundation, Stonewall and UKLGIG. Following this, a comparison of funding concerns provides context for how the material resources available to NGOs affect their capacity to engage in particular transnational activism strategies. The chapter interrogates a common declaration that NGOs ‘work with local actors’ in developing and implementing their transnational activism, as well as tensions between accessible and effective strategies. Using NGO responses to the introduction of sharia law in Brunei as a case study, Farmer suggests that a shared commitment to solidarity has not always been enacted in practice and that there remains scope for UK-based NGOs to frame their activism strate...