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Only since 2011 have sexual minorities been able to serve openly in the U.S. military. The previous anti-gay policies and culture of the military may have increased anti-gay beliefs among veterans. Using data from the 2010–2016 General Social Survey, we tested whether veterans more frequently endorsed anti-gay beliefs than their non-veteran peers. Adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics with multiple logistic regression, we tested the associations of veteran status with five anti-gay beliefs (i.e., disallowing a gay person (1) from publicly speaking or (2) teaching at a university, (3) removing a gay-supportive book from a library, (4) whether same-sex sexual relations are wrong, and (5) support of same-sex marriage. Veteran status was associated with greater disagreement with same-sex marriage (B = 0.16, p = 0.033) but not with other anti-gay beliefs. Most anti-gay beliefs among veterans were explained by other sociodemographic factors and may not be inherent to veteran status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tying together theories of democratic justice and intersectionality, and presenting a contextual and updated theorization of the social-sexual organization, this article discusses the scope of justice offered to lesbians and gays in Denmark. Analyzing relations of recognition and representation in educational settings and asylum policy, it shows the obstacles to and/or opportunities for justice, including the different effects of intersections of heterosexism, sexism and racism on the agency of various groups of lesbians and gays. Considering justice as a process, the article argues that lesbians and gay movements' democratic pursuit of justice both push existing boundaries of justice and feed on them. And, it indicates conditions for transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to reflect on the transgressive social manifestations of the right of autonomy in relation to the lgbt community. It is transcendental to look at this type of social behavior with incidents in the law and through this thorough analysis know the management of these relationships, delving into their future to determine if there are manifestations that account for behaviors with homophobic, abuse and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Criminal Code reform passed by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, which decriminalized certain same-sex acts under certain circumstances. He discusses the efforts to commemorate the 1969 Criminal Code reform, the response of the Liberal Party government, led by Pierre's son Justin Trudeau to the Criminal Code reform, and the need to abandon queer New Year's and annual pride pilgrimages in search of more local histories to celebrate.

Several studies have described and analyzed the development and diffusion of hate crime laws in the United States, but none specifically examined state-level differences in protected categories. Forty-five of the 50 states have a hate crime statute, but only 30 of those include sexual orientation. In this study the social construction framework is applied to the hate crime policy domain in order to determine whether or not variations in the social and political status of gays and lesbians are associated with the inclusion of sexual orientation in state hate crime laws. Content analysis of daily newspapers in six states revealed that a positive social construction is associated with groups seeking hate crime law protections, and that political influence may also be a key factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: This essay argues that the East German film Coming Out (1989) achieves a dual objective: to reflect a version of living conditions for gay citizens of the GDR at the time and to project the possibility of an enlightened future in which they, and other outsiders, do not face discrimination because of their difference. Coming Out, directed by Heiner Carow, was the first feature film about homosexuality in the GDR. It premiered the day the Berlin Wall fell and came after a long and complicated history of gay rights and activism in East Germany. Despite decriminalisation in 1968, the position of lesbians and gay men in the GDR was an ambivalent and contradictory one. Through narrative and cinematographic means, the film refers to gay history and to the dissonance between socialist society and individualism, while also presenting an affirmative message for positive change and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: QT v Director of Immigration is the most important decision on gay rights in Hong Kong since the unequal ages of consent between heterosexuals and homosexuals were held to be unconstitutional 10 years ago. The Court of Appeal of Hong Kong affirmed the right of same‐sex couples married or in a civil partnership overseas to be treated on an equal basis with married heterosexual couples. This note considers the strengths and shortcomings of the Court of Appeal's reasoning, in terms of its potential significance both to the rights of sexual minorities and to the wider protection of human rights by means of the common law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Court of Justice of the European Union decided its first ever discrimination claim argued explicitly on two grounds--sexual orientation and age--on 24 November 2016. It found that no discrimination could exist on both grounds where no discrimination existed on the grounds considered separately. With this, the Court rejected the possibility of recognising discrimination based on two grounds combined together and thus the relevance of intersectionality in European Union (EU) discrimination law. This note critiques the decision in Parris v Trinity College Dublin not only for disregarding intersectional discrimination but also for its weak single-ground analysis. In particular, the note argues that the Court failed: (i) to appreciate the normative basis of intersectionality--as creating unique patterns of disadvantage based on a combination of grounds--and how it transpires in practice; and (ii) in the alternative, to apply the Employment Directive 2000/78 correctly to claims of sexual orientation and age discrimination and in the light of its discrimination jurisprudence. The failure in Parris thus signifies a lost opportunity for the Court to address complex forms of structural inequality in EU law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This reflection draws upon two recent ‘moments’ in British sexuality politics—a series of Parliamentary debates on Global LGBT rights and Brighton Pride’s campaign to ‘Highlight Global LGBT Communities’. It contrasts these two moments in order to demonstrate how, at a time when LGBT rights have ostensibly been ‘won’ in the UK, there is an increasing tendency to shift focus to the persecution of SOGI minorities elsewhere in the world. This shift in focus sets up a binary of here versus there that is politically persuasive but ultimately limited and limiting. By reflecting on the way that this growing trend of creating sexual politics elsewhere occurs in two very different locations in British politics and activism, we seek to begin a conversation about the relational affects of placing sexual politics ‘elsewhere’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article supports the expansion of the definition of parent beyond a legal or biological parent. It cites the importance of recognizing the type of parentage illustrated by the American Law Institute (ALI) principles. It also examines decisions issued by the New York Court of Appeals regarding the status of gay people and the protection afforded to them and their families by the Court.

Commitment to the European Union’s gay rights standards remains weak in new EU members and countries applying for EU membership. If the EU’s standards have minimal consequences, then when do voters support the EU’s involvement in gay rights? The existing research misses a comparison of opinions between those who identify with gay people, and those who do not. Sexuality-based marginalization carried out by state institutions (political homophobia) motivates those who identify with gay people to support alternatives to their state’s authority. Using an original survey of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I find that those who identify more closely with gay people are more likely to support transferring control of gay rights to the EU. Using twenty-one surveys of EU member states, I find that in countries with high levels of political homophobia, those who report discrimination on the basis of sexuality exhibit higher levels of support for the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyses the recent focus on Russian human rights violations in Anglophone media, scrutinising the ideological agenda of the visual politics which strategically foreground victimised bodies of Russian dissidents. Notwithstanding the importance of a critique on human rights violations, the article points to the unwanted but very real side effects the current mediatisations of violence have, from structural victimisation and the creation of ‘gay martyrs’ to the resignification of the West as progressive and ‘gay’ and Russia as backward and heterosexual. A close reading of popular press photographs of wounded Russian gay youth and the textual context – arguably representative for the Western media focus on the ‘Eastern’ violation of human rights between 2012 and 2014 – serves to illustrate how an image of Russian nation and Russian state politics is forged within Anglophone media discourses meant to reinforce the positive identity of the self-same by evoking pity, empathy and a responsible helpful attitude toward the endangered othered. The essay argues that Anglophone media’s focus on the vulnerability of Russian LGBTIQ+ bodies, consciously or unconsciously, reduces the subjects to this vulnerability, confirming feelings of moral superiority within the enlightened audience. The study highlights the important role that Russia’s vulnerable citizens play not only in the construction of values such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘acceptance’ and evaluations like ‘progressive’ and ‘modern’, but also in perceptions of the nation and its people and the reaffirmation of the dualistic divide between ‘The East’ and ‘The West’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) has expanded over the last two decades, with new technology allowing researchers to analyze more data, faster, and in more complex ways. However, a review of research articles that mentioned the use of QDAS found that authors often omitted critical details about the value-added of the software. This article seeks to fill that gap. We describe our use of NVivo to analyze qualitative data collected for the comprehensive review preceding the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the 1994 law banning openly gay individuals from serving in the U.S. military. We describe why we chose this software product, detail the staffing strategies we used for the team-based analysis, and provide examples of the kinds of queries we ran to answer the study questions. We conclude with a brief discussion of “lessons learned” from this quick-tempo, large-scale qualitative project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spring of 2013, I had the opportunity to accompany a group of Israeli gay couples to Mumbai to conduct ethnographic research on their experiences with transnational surrogacy. Based on this study, the article discusses their encounters with the Indian and Israeli bureaucracy establishing legal parenthood and citizenship to their children. The involved procedures seldom worked out smoothly, and brought about many moments of standstill. 1 suggest that these moments constituted crises of citizenship, in which the intended parents' experiences clashed with their expectations towards the state and their place in the world. As both countries had no written policies with regards to transnational surrogacy, the protocols and requirements were in flux and left them with constant anxiety from the unknown and with the feeling that many of the requirements were arbitrary, even exploitative or spiteful. The very same moments also unveiled my interlocutors' power, as agents and brokers--and at times even their social network back home--assisted them in the maze of bureaucracy and intervened on their behalf. Yet, their reliance on intermediators turned out to be a double-edged sword: The intended parents often felt that the middle men themselves were not engaged enough, overcharged them, or tricked them into additional payments. Vulnerability and privilege go here hand in hand, thus allowing for an understanding of intended parents that does not view them as either successful neoliberal citizens or vulnerable victims of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various aspects of equal protection in America, and it mentions how courts are split regarding whether to apply a heightened scrutiny or rational basis standard of review to laws and policies that discriminate based on sexual orientation. The political power component of equal protection analysis is examined, along with anti-gay laws and legal protections for minorities in the U.S. The nation's Supreme Court and suspect classifications are assessed.

Professors Chilton and Posner argue that a major predictor of contemporary human rights practices can be found in states' own distant pasts. Countries that faced adverse geographic, demographic, or institutional conditions centuries ago tend to have worse human rights practices today than those that faced favorable conditions. These conditions can affect contemporary human rights practices regardless of modern-day interventions, such as international human rights treaties. This claim is important, but it also leaves many questions unanswered. This response Essay focuses on two such unanswered questions. First, Professors Chilton and Posner do not theorize the mechanisms through which historical conditions affect contemporary human rights practices. This Essay draws on the development economics literature to articulate some preliminary hypotheses on how fixed geographic and historical factors can affect contemporary human rights. More generally, it suggests that, if we want to develop a research agenda that incorporates history into our understanding of contemporary human rights practices, we need theory to explain how fixed historical and geographic factors affect contemporary human rights. Second, Chilton and Posner do not address whether historical trends can be reversed. This Essay focuses on this question by drawing on the concept of critical junctures. Critical junctures are transformative moments in a nation's history during which there exist opportunities to reverse deeply rooted historical trends. In the spirit of Chilton and Posner's article, it takes seriously the idea that history matters. But unlike Chilton and Posner, who focus on path dependence, the idea of critical junctures suggests that there exist opportunities for change. This Essay illustrates the potential importance of critical junctures by exploring the development of gay rights in Argentina and South Africa, two countries with long histories of conservative sexual norms and repressive anti-gay laws, which nonetheless became global trailblazers on gay rights. These case studies provide important insights into the pathways through which historical trends can be reversed. This Essay concludes that, if human rights scholarship is to take history seriously, it should include the study of critical junctures, and not just path dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's views about a doux-commerce (sweet commerce) theory of the market, and it mentions the relationship between religion and law and the limits of antidiscrimination law in America. The religious aspects of same-sex marriage in the U.S. are examined, along with the connection between commerce and religious faith. The same-sex marriage law case Obergefell v. Hodges is assessed, as well as U.S. state and municipal legal protections for gays and lesbians.

The article reports the judgments delivered by the Caribbean Court of Justice including "Tomlinson v. Belize" and "Tomlinson v. Trinidad and Tobago." It reports that the court rejected a claim that the Immigration Acts of Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, both of which contain express provisions banning the entry of homosexuals into those two countries, violate the right to free movement of individuals within the Caribbean Community.

The article discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of same-sex marriage in cases 'Obergefell v. Hodges' and 'Romer v. Evans.' Topics discussed include laws related to marriage equality; cause for social disfavor of homosexual behavior; social landscape of Romer; and ways in which Romer contributed to the advancement of gay rights in America.

This article discusses the legal characteristics associated with gender equality and same-sex marriage according to the Civil Code of Peru. The author comments on the legal status of civil unions, marriage, and sexual orientation in the country and describes the representation of gay people and couples in Peruvian law.

The case Atala Riffo and girls v. State of Chile, is a milestone in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court, so the case has special significance, because there is evidence that in the States of the Americas there is still a high degree of intolerance and discrimination in relation to sexual orientation. In this case, this situation was caused by the Chilean judicial system, making discrimination and arbitrary interference with the privacy of Ms. Atala Riffo for being a lesbian. This reason was the main base of the decision that was resolved to withdraw custody of their daughters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homonationalism is a conceptual framework that allows to understand how the struggle for LGTB rights is being assimilated by national exceptionalism in order to constitute a geopolitical colonial differentiation. It builds equivalences between homosexual and national subject positions that allows the differentiation of subject positions and populations within the country and between countries, justifying policies based on the differentiation of human rights development. This phenomenon has been applied to the US and its theoretical development is being spreading throughout the world. In light of recent developments both in terms of national identity and LGTB legal rights, Catalonia could be susceptible of an exceptionalism that could lead to homonationalist discourses. This paper explores the homonationalist discourse in Catalonia using narratives from LGTBI activists. Participants identify a homonationalist discourse and recognise the presence of homo-normativity questioned by the activist. Nevertheless, a homonationalist geopolitical hierarchy is not appreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use comparative historical analysis to explain agenda-setting and the timing of policy outcomes on same-sex marriage in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Unlike the United States and Canada, Australia does not have a bill of rights, making litigation to obtain rights not enumerated in existing legislation unavailable to activists. Extending the literatures on the development of public policy and on political and historical institutionalism, we argue that in the absence of domestic opportunities for legal change, international law becomes more important to activists in wealthy democracies, but it is contingent on states’ specific institutional and cultural features. Even when international law is “domesticated” into national political structures, it is still secondary to internal conditions in countries with extensive rights-based polities. International law may set a political agenda, but once introduced, policies move according to internal conditions related to party discipline, the centralization of courts, and policy legacies within those countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2005 Canada-wide legalization of same-sex marriage provided same-sex couples with access to an institution they had previous been excluded from. Yet not all couples choose to marry. In this paper, we examine why this is the case, considering the role of personal, political, and historical factors. We draw on 22 interviews with people in common-law same-sex relationships in Toronto to examine how they understand their relationship within the new context of marriage equality. We find that participants feel they are held accountable to marriage as a default relationship legitimacy norm, indicating that this new institutional access is accompanied by a set of social expectations. Despite their awareness of the need to navigate a social context favoring marriage, participants individualize their relationship decisions as personal rather than political. Participants often contradict themselves as they articulate what marriage means to them, suggesting that, in this period of legal and social transition, people are negotiating multiple meanings, societal messages, and traditions when it comes to making sense of their relationship. We discuss the implications of these findings for LGBQ activism and the framing of sexuality-based inequalities in Canadian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Koushal v Naz the Indian Supreme Court overturned a High Court judgment which had declared unconstitutional section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalising 'carnal intercourse against the order of nature'. In doing so, it has rebranded gay and transgendered Indians as criminals. This case note explores some of the structural problems that led to this judgment. The first problem is the transformation of the Indian Supreme Court into a populist, quasi-legislative, institution that sees itself as a tool of governance. This has put significant pressure on its counter-majoritarian role. The second relates to the sheer size of the Court's docket (given its wide jurisdiction and lax standing rules), coupled with the Indian legal academy's inability and unwillingness to continuously demand judicial fidelity to the law. These factors have led to the normalisation of unreasoned or poorly-reasoned judgments and a breakdown of stare decisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]