Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic material gathered in Wroclaw, Poland, in the proposed paper I analyze how municipal policies and practices as well as grassroot activism aimed at non-heteronormative citizens have been shaped by global, regional, national and local dynamics over the last two decades.

Paper long abstract:

Since the political mobilization of Polish LGBTQ movements due to the country EU accession in 2004, the idea of “sexual citizenship” has provided an important “horizon of hope” (Appadurai 2013: 295) for non-heteronormative persons. Yet, this hope has not been fulfilled as, despite relentless efforts of the activist circles, legal and cultural LGBT rights are still not protected. On the other hand, because Polish right-wing populism and nationalism (including the governmental level) have been capitalizing on politicized homo- and transphobia and anti-EU stance, in recent years support for the EU “sexual citizenship” has become an important sign of belonging to the liberal democratic political camp.

Drawing on ethnographic material gathered in Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland, in the proposed paper I analyze how the above historically changing circumstances have been shaping municipal policies and practices as well as grassroot activism aimed at non-heteronormative citizens over the last two decades. Whereas the centrist liberal municipality has been working for an image of Wroclaw as a “truly European” metropolis since the early 1990s, until 2018 its actual policies and practices were marked by a rather anti-LGBTQ stance. This has changed only recently as an act of resistance against the right-wing nationalist government and brought entirely new organizational and political possibilities (and challenges) for local LGBTQ movements. In this context I focus on dynamics of the nexus between municipality and grassroot LGBTQ activism with a special attention given to entanglements of various local, national, regional and global scales.

Paper short abstract:

This study explores the politics of visibility of Spanish LGBTQ+ Catholic groups in activist and religious mega-events. They organize their collective action to overcome the unintelligibility of their double identity, facing limitations and conflicts in the public space.

Paper long abstract:

In recent decades, LGBTQ+ Catholic groups have emerged in several countries, seeking to create a safe space to collectively practice their religion without hiding their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. In Spain, their double identity is poorly understood in the public debate: they are considered "intrinsically disordered" according to their Church's doctrine and often feel treated as "weirdos" within the LGBTQ+ activism. To overcome unintelligibility, they develop politics of visibility from two religious frameworks: the Jesuit rhetoric of "building bridges" and the Christian imperative to "bear witness." Due to their limited resources for collective action, mega-events become strategic opportunities to mobilize their demands claiming political recognition in the activist and religious spheres. Based on data collected through archive review and fieldwork within Spanish LGBTQ+ Christian groups between 2019 and 2023, this paper explains the strategies deployed during four editions of Madrid's LGBTQ+ Pride and the 2023 World Youth Day. Internationalization, activist networking, innovative protest repertoires, and occupation of public space are key elements of the strategies. Organizational limitations and street conflicts with other groups are also explored.

Paper short abstract:

The trans depathologization movement disputes certain psychiatric diagnoses that regulate the lives of trans individuals. Trans trajectories, from a dialectical and relational perspective, tension various social and political spheres, enabling gender self-determination.

Paper long abstract:

It is impossible to confine an individual within a specific social category from which to analyze their actions or experiences, based on delimited and homogeneous categories such as man,

woman, trans, cis, or homosexual. Nor is a purely subjective or individual approach to life trajectories viable. This sociological perspective recognizes individuals as social agents who

generate new subjective positions in constant change and openness within diverse social contexts. Any attempt to search for a pre-established gender identity; is to detach the

individual from the social world, denying their condition as a social agent and the objective conditions that regulate them. The sex-gender system is in crisis, giving rise to subjectivities related to reflective capacity and social experiences. However, these new subjectivities, unlike existing ones, still lack social legitimacy. The further the individual is from legitimization, the longer and more complex their process of subjectivation will be. This analysis seeks to address the life trajectories of trans individuals from a different perspective. Gender/sex normativity exercises a biopolitics that produces and regulates social worlds, bodies, and individuals,

excluding, violating, medicalizing, pathologizing, and denying those who transit its borders.

Paper short abstract:

This paper researches sexual violence in Ethiopia's conflict in the regions of Tigray and Amhara, through the work of NGOs and help centres, seeking to examine how sexual violence is a contingent weapon of war and strategy, rather than a natural product of violent conflict.

Paper long abstract:

War stretches beyond the battlefield. Its elements transpire in all spaces of human relations and communications. As such, sexual violence in war is often overlooked. The focus is often set on the socio-political aspects of material and human loss, leaving, however, the sexual question aside. Episodes of sexual violence are often understood as part of wartime violence, often improperly addressed after the conflict, although survivors still bear the marks of it long after the conflict.

This research’s objective is to examine how sexual violence has been shaped throughout the Ethiopian conflict, how it is wielded as a political weapon and strategy, and how NGOs and support societies shape systems for defining gender and sexual violence in Ethiopia. This is done by facing the central question of whether this violence is inevitable, emphasizing the work which argues towards the opposite, that this violence is not (and should not be) inherent to armed conflicts, and is instead dependent on contingent conditions (power, location, and human cultural relations)

Therefore, in this paper, sexual violence is seen as a contingent weapon of war and a strategy towards victory in a conflict. Ethnographically, I focus on the cases of the regions of Amhara and Tigray in Ethiopia, which have been restless and historical centres of military and political confrontations. UN experts also pointed to the high estimates of survivors in health facilities which reported sexual violence (2204 individuals between November 2020 and June 2021), the majority of which (90%), were underage girls.

Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on queer community's perceptions of state-sponsored homo/queerphobia in Azerbaijan. By ethnographically exploring, this study seeks to unpack how queers perceive the ongoing homo/queerphobia by the state and how to understand its interconnectedness with the state institutions.

Paper long abstract:

In 1991, Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and began a new decade of development. In order to join the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan decriminalised homosexuality in 2000, which was the most influential decision for protecting queer lives. However, the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia, booming oil industry, and rising authoritarianism avoided further developments of LGBTQI+ rights. This paper will focus on queer community's perceptions of state-sponsored homophobia and homophobic society, which is triggered by the state that decided to become inactive to protect queers. By ethnographically exploring, I study how queers perceive the ongoing homo/queerphobia by state against queer community and how to understand its interconnectedness with the state institutions. By institutions, I aim to explore police and state security service and the way queer reporting culture to these institutions works in practice.

Throughout this paper, I claim that nobody should die or be attacked because of the state’s inactivity to protect them based on their non-heterosexual gender identities. If the Azerbaijani state changed its rigid regulations and protected LGBTQI+ citizens, queers could be tolerated more and report cases of attacks or threats to the state authorities with less hesitation. Additionally, in case of protective actions from Azerbaijani state towards LGBTQI+ citizens and against hate speech, we would not be witnessing queerphobic attacks and many queers’ deaths in comparison with the current scene. Methodologically, this chapter builds on semi-structured interview materials with queer activists and initiatives and extensive fieldwork in Baku from May 2021 to July 2022.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation aims to share a series of emerging questions in deconstructing the starting points of comparative research on labor inclusion policies for trans people in Madrid and Buenos Aires.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation aims to share a series of emerging questions in the process of deconstructing the starting points of comparative research on labor inclusion policies for trans people in Madrid and Buenos Aires. From an anthropological perspective, the paper analyzes the processes of demand and access to employment, as well as the advocacy and institutionalization of specific public policies for the trans population in both cities.

What temporalities, contexts, and actors make these policies possible? What meanings and practices are under tension in the (attempt to) achieve labor inclusion? What bridges intersect both cities? What remains (yet) to be (re/de) colonized?

The presentation concludes by suggesting a methodological reflection on the potentials and limitations of the comparative exercise in the production of ethnographic knowledge, aiming to strengthen tools for the defense of conquered and increasingly threatened rights.