Search Results (20)

In 2000, during the Great Jubilee, the Catholic Church opposed the celebration of the International Gay Pride in Rome. Twenty-five years later, in 2025, the LGBT+ Jubilee pilgrimage was included in the official Jubilee program. This article analyzes both the narratives of those who participated in the pilgrimage and the sociohistorical factors that made this event possible. Using digital content analysis of 50 testimonies collected by La Tenda di Gionata, the Catholic LGBT+ organization responsible for organizing the LGBT+ Jubilee pilgrimage, the study shows that the principle of dignity emerges as the main narrative legitimizing the belonging of LGBT+ Catholics within the Church, expressed through recurrent claims for recognition rather than through mere welcoming. Furthermore, the article identifies two endogenous factors that contributed to the conditions under which this event took place: the pragmatic strategy of Pope Francis’s pontificate and the alignment and convergence of the Catholic LGBT+ movement with the wider culture of rights. The study suggests that these developments were made possible by the unexpected consequences of religious freedom within the religious field, which enabled a major shift in the understanding of religion, from a duty-centered to right-centered framework, in the contemporary world. Full article

The latest Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education, and Health Education (RSHE) Draft Guidance seeks to reduce the inclusion of LGBT themes in English schools. Additionally, the Gender Questioning Draft Guidance for Schools and Colleges and the Cass Review overlook the rights of trans and non-binary young people, further intensifying the heated debates surrounding their lives. In response, the author draws upon research conducted in a primary school in Greater London in 2021, when statutory RSHE, including LGBT content, was first introduced. The research aimed to understand how teachers felt about teaching RSHE and to collaborate with them to enhance pupil learning within and beyond the RSHE curriculum. This paper critiques lesson observations and teachers’ reflections on their lessons using a Framework for Sexuality Education and Queer Theory. The researcher’s call to rethink how RSHE is taught should not be taken to mean it should not be taught. To the contrary, the findings suggest a need for the school to broaden its curriculum, teaching methods, and strategies to become a truly ‘LGBT-inclusive’ environment. However, the paper also illuminates the apprehensions these primary school teachers experienced, which in turn influenced pedagogical decisions. The article concludes by recommending specific whole-school approaches and effective pedagogical practices for RSHE in the school, which could be beneficial to other primary school settings. Effective teaching of LGBT themes requires clear support for educators, especially within the complexity of a primary school setting and given the changing political and social climate. Full article

This article explores diverse ethical considerations related to the study of vulnerable population groups to produce meaningful project outcomes that avoid harm to the involved communities. In the specific context of the intersex community, previous analyses have encountered various challenges, including the medicalization of intersex people’s bodies, the use of pathologizing language, and misrepresentation of the population’s needs. The article explores some of the beliefs, experiences, and tools that experts in research ethics, researchers, and intersex research participants consider most important regarding research ethics in intersex-related studies. The article is based on original empirical research; semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 participants, recruited through email and snowball sampling methods, and the data were examined using thematic analysis. It moves from issues related to the research design (positionality, researcher preparation, framing intersex within the LGBT acronym) to experiences related to the research development (ethical approval, informed consent process, language use, relationship of trust). The article describes some of the major concerns and raises discussions that could be relevant for the development of future research under human rights-based perspectives. The findings are aimed to be useful beyond the field of intersex-related studies, as they can be relevant to research about other communities that have endured violations of their human rights during research. Full article

This article seeks to explain the political responsibility that Polish right-wing female politicians directly associated with the 2015–2023 Polish government and the then-ruling Law and Justice Party bear in the state-sanctioned violence against minors in the context of LGBT- and immigration-related issues. Its main assumption is that, in times of the nationalist surge that has been sweeping Poland, women using anti-LGBT and anti-immigration discourses helped to legitimize discriminatory state practices and, consequently, made a significant contribution to the enactment of white, Christian, and heteronormative identity on Polish children. Drawing upon Critical Discourse Analysis, this work examines the anti-LGBT and anti-immigration political talk by female politicians who, in their narrative strategies, adopt the position of a “Polish mother” on a mission to save a “child in danger”. Through my analysis, I aim to demonstrate that anti-LGBT and anti-immigration discourses are equally significant areas of women’s political engagement. Despite the prevalent cultural norms of caring motherhood, women do exercise their agency in political struggles as supporters of discriminatory state policies directed against minors by re-politicizing a symbolic figure of the “Polish mother”. Full article

People with innate variations of sex characteristics (also known as intersex traits or disorders or differences of sex development) have any of a wide range of innate physical traits that differ from medical and social norms for female and male bodies. Responses to these physical differences create experiences and risks of stigmatisation, discrimination, violence, and harmful medical practices intended to promote social and familial integration and conformity with gender stereotypes. As is evident globally, the Australian policy response to the existence and needs of people with innate variations of sex characteristics has been largely incoherent, variously framing the population as having disordered sex development in need of “fixing”, and a third sex/gender identity group in need of recognition, with only recent engagement by intersex community-controlled civil society organisations. This paper presents an overview of the context and goals of the intersex human rights movement in Australia. Australian intersex community organisations have sought to apply human rights norms and develop new infrastructure to address key health and human rights issues, and necessitating new ways of resolving policy incoherence. Together with human rights, mental health, and public health institutions, they have called for significant changes to medical models of care and reform to research and classification systems. Intersex community organising and resourcing have made a tangible difference. The Australian Capital Territory is the first jurisdiction in the country to move ahead with reforms to clinical practice, including a legislative prohibition of certain practices without personal informed consent, oversight of clinical decision-making, and investment in psychosocial support. A national community-controlled psychosocial support service has also commenced. Full article

Taiwan is the first country in Asia to recognize the legal rights of same-sex couples to get married. Although same-sex marriage has been legal in Taiwan since May 2019, the same-sex marriage family was not allowed to adopt child legally; only stepchild adoption was permitted. This is still a very controversial issue, so this study intended to understand the views of Taiwanese college students, whose voices should be heard and whose opinions should be valued by legislators. To investigate this issue, a questionnaire was constructed, and 440 objects were collected. The questionnaire regarding attitudes toward same-sex marriage adoption consisted of three dimensions: “Worry and against”, “Idea Recognition” and “Action Support”. Each dimension has good reliability. The internal consistent coefficients (Cronbach’s α) were 0.86, 0.93, and 0.94. The responses reveal that college students in Taiwan have a relatively positive attitude towards same-sex marriage adoption, and college students who are biologically female, non-heterosexual, non-Christian, major in social work, and are acquainted with the LGBT community have more positive attitudes. College students’ same-sex marriage and adoption attitudes can be predicted by biological sex, sexual orientation, religion, grade, whether they major in social work, have contact experience with the LGBT community, contact experience with adoption, and same-sex parenting concepts. The same-sex parenting concept is the most important predictor variable, which means that the judgment about whether same-sex marriage couples can bear the responsibility of raising children is the most critical factor affecting the attitude of same-sex marriage adoption. Full article

Many countries are discussing LGBT rights, such as the right to wed and create a family. Despite research indicating that there is no reason to deny same-sex couples the right to be parents, negative attitudes persist concerning the quality of parenting by gay and lesbian individuals. The purpose of this study (N = 436) was to explore the relationship between the attribution of conflict in same-sex couples and the attribution of lower parenting competencies. We examined the attribution of conflict within heterosexual vs. same-sex couples in order to determine if the alleged conflict attributed to the latter can be used in a strategic manner to justify reduced same-sex parenting competence. Results showed a positive association between the attribution of conflict and lower parenting competence, especially in the same-sex couple evaluation. Furthermore, the attribution of conflict appears to be associated with a conservative political stance, gender essentialist beliefs, and homonegativity. A moderated mediation model confirmed our prediction, revealing that right-wing (vs. center and left-wing) participants considered same-sex couples to be less competent as parents due to the attribution of conflict within the couple. Results might be useful to foster the dissemination of reliable information about same-sex parent families. Full article

The increasing importance of identifying lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) populations is a key driver in changes to demographic data collection in representative surveys of youth. While such population-based data are rare, Growing Up in Ireland (GUI), an Irish, government-funded, longitudinal survey, includes sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) measurements. This qualitative study responds to a query from the GUI study team and aims to identify how best to collect SOGI data in future waves of GUI. A university Human Research Ethics Committee granted approval for online consultations with LGBT+ youth (n = 6) with experiential expertise in policy making. The research is underpinned by rights-based public patient involvement (PPI) with recorded discussions, which were transcribed and imported into NVivo 12, generating the theme “recognition in research, policy and society”. This co-created article, with the LGBT+ young PPI Panel members, commends the inclusion of SOGI data in GUI and recommends changes in question placement and phrasing. Aligning with best practice, the PPI members provide a template for wording on consecutive sex and gender questions, expanded sexual orientation identity categories and maintaining the existing well-phrased transgender question from GUI. This offers potential to improve the quality of the SOGI data collected and the experience of those completing the questionnaire. These findings extend beyond GUI, with relevance for surveys with youth populations. This paper underscores the potential and benefits of participatory approaches to research with youth and views their role beyond simply as sources of data. Full article

European nation states increasingly hail LGBT identities as part of modern values; LGBT recognitions have become a symbol of secular achievements. Discourses around gay rights and sexual diversity are increasingly pitted against presumably homophobic and intolerant ‘others’. An increased intolerant and repressive attitude towards migrants and racialised minorities is justified by their supposed threat to exactly these values. LGBT tolerance is used as a marker for modern values and this positions LGBT people as ‘border patrollers’ who can count as part of the modern liberal nation. This paper analyses 92 interviews with LGBT participants who live in six small and medium sized ordinary cities in Europe. It discusses how their fear of homophobia is evaluated according to perceived sexual norms and attitudes at the neighbourhood level. Neighbourhoods are considered either LGBT friendly or unfriendly according to their socio-demographic characteristics that focus on social class and/or migration and that intersects with race, ethnicity and religion. Based on the findings, neighbourhoods are both a geographical and a cultural terrain that can be understood, organised and contested through a sexuality discourse in the production of border regimes that discipline and produce the confines of the normative, the ‘modern’ and the ‘backward’. Not only are LGBT people positioned as border patrollers but they express their fear of homophobia also through bordering. The neighbourhood can then be understood, organised and contested through a sexuality discourse in the production of border regimes. Full article

In a time of growing transformations of the definition of religious minorities, the chapter aims to investigate the different trajectories of development of this topic in international law. To explore this issue, I propose an analysis divided into four paragraphs corresponding to the evolution of religious minorities’ rights (the traditional definition; the enlargement; the inclusion; the intersection). The chapter aims to develop the following contents: (a) an analysis of the traditional criteria defining religious minorities in international documents between 1947 and 1985; (b) a model of investigation of new religious minorities within specific trajectories of transformation of this category (implementation; inclusion; intersection); (c) a vocabulary test concerning the innovations in the linguistic approach to religious minorities; (d) the effects of the different dynamics of innovation on the rights of religious minorities. Full article

Research on LGBTIQ+ families has focused on the effects of being in a diverse family on the development of children. We seek to show the experience of parenthood from the perspective of LGBTIQ+ people, considering its particularities and the role that health care services play as a potential support network. We used the biographical method through open-ended interviews, participants were LGBT people, and key informants from Chile, Colombia, and Mexico were selected based on a sociostructural sampling. We found that internalized stigma impacts LGBTIQ+ parenting in five ways: the impossibility of thinking of oneself as a parent, fear of violating children’s rights, fear of passing on the stigma, fear of introducing their LGBTIQ+ partner, and the greater discrimination that trans and intersex people suffer. We identified gaps in health care perceptions: the need to guarantee universal access to health care, the need to include a gender perspective and inclusive treatment by health personnel, mental health programs with a community approach, access to assisted fertilization programs, and the generation of collaborative alliances between health services, civil society organizations, and the LGBTIQ+ community. We conclude that the health system is a crucial space from which to enable guarantees for the exercise of rights and overcome internalized stigma. Full article

To date, various international treaties have been adopted at the universal and regional levels, guaranteeing the protection of every person’s freedom of conscience and religion. Moreover, international monitoring mechanisms have been established to protect this human freedom within the framework of the UN, as well as various regional organizations (OSCE, Council of Europe, African Union). (1) In this article, the authors analyze these mechanisms and identify both positive practices and negative discriminatory practices against Christians—citizens of the states of the Global South. (2) The methodological basis of the study involves a combination of general scientific (dialectical, historical, inductive, deductive, analytical, synthetic) and particular scientific methods (formal–legal, comparative–legal, interpretative, statistical, procedural, and dynamic). (3) The use of these allowed the authors to identify a number of key problems in the indicated discourse and to draw conclusions. With regard to abortion, the authors conclude that current trend is that, in multiple and various ways, states are pressed to prioritize a woman’s right to life, a woman’s freedom of “reproductive choice” over a doctor’s right to freedom of conscience. The situation is similar with the prioritization of the so-called “rights” of LGBT persons in relation to the rights of believing Christians. Moreover, the authors pay much attention to the analysis of the situation of the prosecution and persecution of Christians in the countries of the Global South, especially in Africa. (4) In conclusion, it is noted that various instruments, both political and legal, have been established in international law which make it possible to identify facts of the violation of freedom of religion and call to account for such acts of discrimination, but they are not always effective. Full article

This article is an empirical investigation into the visual mobilization strategies by far-right political parties for election campaigns constructing Muslim immigrants as a “threat” to the nation. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical approach of social movement studies and research on media and communication, I focus on the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has produced several widespread inflammatory series of visual election posters featuring anti-Islam rhetoric, combined with provocative images of gender and sexuality. By approaching visual politics through a perspective on actors constructing visual forms of political mobilization, I show how far-right populist “movement parties” are supported by professional graphic designers commercializing extremist ideologies by creating ambivalent images and text messages. My findings on the AfD’s visual campaign politics document the instrumentalization and appropriation of the rhetoric of women’s empowerment and LGBT rights discourse, helping the AfD to rebrand its image as a liberal democratic opposition party, while at the same time, maintaining its illiberal political agenda on gender and sexuality. Visual representations of gender and sexuality in professionally created election posters served to ridicule and shame Muslim minorities and denounce their “Otherness”—while also promoting a heroic self-image of the party as a savior of white women and Western civilization from the threat of male Muslim migrants. By documenting the visual politics of the AfD, as embedded in transnational cooperation between different actors, including visual professional graphic designers and far-right party activists, my multimodal analysis shows how far-right movement parties marketize and commercialize their image as “progressive” in order to reach out to new voters. Full article

Religious values neither wholly threaten nor wholly reinforce the stability of liberal democracy. This depends upon how they may be interpreted and applied. The recent influence of Christian nationalists, who would promote a specific interpretation of Christianity as the only legitimate basis for public policy, and of those who would elevate religious liberty above all other rights, does not promote pluralism. Although people should be able to live out their religious commitments, it is the state, not individuals or private organizations, that must draw the line between the free exercise of religion and the civil rights of those who may be adversely affected by the religious exercise of others. First, religious rights may threaten other rights, particularly when reinforced with public funds. Second, religion makes valuable contributions to pluralism when it protects the conscientious beliefs and practices of individuals and of minority religious groups. Finally, concerning LGBT civil rights, individual religious believers should be accommodated as much as possible, but their organizations should be required to arrange for others without objections to provide services that are sought. Religion’s greatest contribution occurs when it is allied with movements that enhance individual rights, including but not limited to the free exercise of religion. Full article

Cambodia has experienced rapid economic development and increased globalization in the last two decades, which have influenced changes in sexual attitudes and politics. Yet deeply embedded patriarchal structures that promote adherence to traditional values, gender binaries, and sexual purity of women impede progress in the recognition of the rights of sex/entertainment workers and LGBT communities. Using the framework of sexual humanitarianism, this paper outlines the ways in which these constraints are compounded by two dominant conflicting narratives that place these groups as either at-risk and vulnerable or socially deviant, and deemed in need of interventions that protect and control. Drawing on over a decade of empirical research on the sex/entertainment industries, and broader gender/sexual landscape in Cambodia, as well as current social activism of the authors, this paper also describes the ways LGBT and sex worker communities are engaging in shared organizing and self-advocacy as strategies to address their needs and the consequences left in the wake of sexual humanitarian interventions. In order to contextualize their deeply-rooted legacy in Cambodia, the paper also provides an overview of past and contemporary gender/sexual norms and diversity, and concludes with a call for governments and policymakers to expand support for grassroots movements and to listen more closely to the voices of LGBT and sex worker communities so that the political and social needs of these groups can be addressed. Full article