The Global Trajectories of Queerness: Re-thinking Same-Sex Politics in the Global South

270 Pages·2015·4.307 MB·English

by  Ashley Tellis and Sruti Bala (eds.)

The Global Trajectories of Queerness:
Re-thinking Same-Sex Politics in the Global South
Thamyris/
Intersecting: Place, Sex, and Race
Series Editor
Ernst van Alphen
Editorial Team
Isabel Hoving,Yasco Horsman,Esther Peeren,Murat Aydemir
The Global Trajectories of Queerness:
Re-thinking Same-Sex Politics in the Global South
Editors
Ashley Tellis and Sruti Bala
Colophon
Mission Statement
Intersecting: Place,Sex,and Race
Intersectingis a series of edited volumes with a critical,interdisciplinary focus.
Intersecting’s mission is to rigorously bring into encounter the crucial insights of
black and ethnic studies,gender studies,and queer studies,and facilitate dialogue
and confrontations between them. Intersectingshares this focus with Thamyris,the
socially committed international journal that was established by Jan Best en Nanny
de Vries,in 1994,out of which Intersectinghas evolved. The sharpness and urgency
of these issues is our point of departure,and our title reflects our decision to work
on the cutting edge.
We envision these confrontations and dialogues through three recurring cate-
gories: place,sex,and race. To us they are three of the most decisive categories that
order society,locate power,and inflict pain and/or pleasure. Gender and class will
necessarily figure prominently in our engagement with the above. Race,for we will
keep analyzing this ugly,much-debated concept,instead of turning to more civil con-
cepts (ethnicity,culture) that do not address the full disgrace of racism. Sex,for sex-
uality has to be addressed as an always-active social strategy of locating,controlling,
and mobilizing people,and as an all-important,not necessarily obvious,cultural prac-
tice. And place,for we agree with other cultural analysts that this is a most produc-
tive framework for the analysis of situated identities and acts that allow us to move
beyond narrow identitarian theories.
The title of the book series points at what we, its editors, want to do: think
together. Our series will not satisfy itself with merely demonstrating the complexity of
our times,or with analyzing the shaping factors of that complexity. We know how to
theorize the intertwining of,for example,sexuality and race,but pushing these inter-
sections one step further is what we aim for: How can this complexity be understood
in practice? That is,in concrete forms of political agency,and the efforts of self-reflex-
ive,contextualized interpretation. How can different socially and theoretically relevant
issues be thought together? And: how can scholars (of different backgrounds) and
activists think together, and realize productive alliances in a radical, transnational
community?
We invite proposals for edited volumes that take the issues that Intersecting
addresses seriously. These contributions should combine an activist-oriented per-
spective with intellectual rigor and theoretical insights,interdisciplinary and transna-
tional perspectives. The editors seek cultural criticism that is daring,invigorating and
self-reflexive; that shares our commitment to thinking together.
Contact us at [email protected].

Dedicated to the memory of
Darío Galaviz-Quezada(Guaymas,Mexico – 1951–1993)
Professor and scholar,who made of gender transgression a joyful art in his class-
room and in his daily life,victim of a homophobic crime;
Thembelihle “Lihle” Sokhela (Johannesburg,South Africa – 1984–2014)
Proud black lesbian “correctively” raped and murdered in the township of Daveyton,
a place she called home;
Mayang Prasetyo(Sumatra,Indonesia – 1987–2014)
Transgender sex worker,who sent her earnings home to her single mother and
sisters; violently murdered by partner in Brisbane,Australia;
in the hope that we might build a world where no more such lives will be taken.

Contents
11 Acknowledgements
13 Introduction: The Global Careers of Queerness Ashley Tellis and
Sruti Bala
29 Back in the Mythology of the Missionary Position: Queer Theory Neville Hoad
as Neoliberal Symptom and Critique
49 Queer of Color Critique and the Question of the Global South Roderick A. Ferguson
57 Unqueering India: Toward a psychic account of same-sex Ashley Tellis
subjects in South Asia
71 Lesbianism,Saudi Arabia,Postcoloniality: Al-Akharun/The Others Shad Naved
83 Dismantling the Pink Door in the Apartheid Wall: Towards a Haneen Maikey and
Decolonized Palestinian Queer Politics Mikki Stelder
105 The Silent Movements of the Iranian Queer Iman Ganji
121 Localized Trajectories of Queerness and Activism under Josephine Ho
Global Governance
137 Of Comrades and Cool Kids: Queer Women’s Activism in China Wei Tingting
145 Queering Thailand: On the Emergence of New Gender and Witchayanee Ocha
Sexual Identities
161 Queer-(in’) the Caribbean: The Trinidad experience Krystal Nandini
Ghisyawan
179 When the State Produces Hate: Re-thinking the Global Queer Stella Nyanzi
Movement through Silence in The Gambia
195 “Eating European Chicken”: Notes toward Queer Guillermo Núñez Noriega
Intercultural Thinking
213 At the Forefront of Sexual Rights? Notes on Argentinean Soledad Cutuli and
LGBT Activism Victoria Keller
229 The Neocolonial Queer Julieta Paredes
241 Outside and Onstage: Experiences of the lesbian feminist Laia América Ribera
theater collective Teatro Siluetasfrom Guatemala and El Salvador Cañénguez
263 Contributors
267 Index