Navigating international rights and local politics: Sexuality governance in a post-colonial setting

Feminist theory has demonstrated how boundaries of the political -- for example, what is public or private -- are themselves political, constructs of power relations in societies. Correspondingly, political theories about sexuality show how it is a political category because sexuality is a site where power is exercised in modern Western societies as well as a way in which people have come to identify themselves in modernity as subjects of rights. The relevance of this question to political science lies in the socio-economic conditions and political institutions that both produce gender or sexual identities and result in inequalities based upon them. I seek to analyze how gender and sexual dissidents develop their own theoretical languages to challenge these inequalities in today's globalizing world. Such identity categories and languages are fields of contestation and cultural hybridity. I suggest that the appropriation of concepts such as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) may, first, have different meanings in various parts of the world and, second, be a bridge to developing more local, indigenous terms -- including recovering older, pre-colonial histories and traditions. I demonstrate that a public sphere for dissident or non-normative sexualities and genders in postcolonial settings exists, access to which can allow legal reform and political gains. Drawing on postcolonial and queer theory, I argue that we are all part of sexuality governance regimes and that recognizing the utility of human rights standards around gender identity and sexual orientation enables acknowledgment of living in the interstices, between identity categories, as a right as well. I use Lebanon and its political culture as a case study and examine the Lebanese LGBT organizations Helem and Meem. I consider the effect of contemporary media and the Internet on shaping the public sphere and political mobilization. I refer to international documents that address gender and sexuality, and I analyze the impact of religious dictates, all in relation to the rich history of sexual discourses and practices in the Arab/Muslim world. My analysis contributes to expanding the discipline of political science and thereby to framing the possibilities for political advocacy on behalf of sexuality and gender.