Paper short abstract:

The premise of the paper is that LGBTQI activism is a social and political activism focusing on human rights concepts and agendas. The paper characterizes LGBTQI organizations in the five African Lusophone countries, focusing on their claims, agendas and campaigns.

Paper long abstract:

Lusophone Africa is considered to have a more tolerant setting in what regards to LGBTQI communities than Francophone or Anglophone Africa. Nevertheless, LGBTQI individuals and groups face day-to-day prejudices, discrimination and violence. The paper aims at presenting an outline of LGBTQI organizations in the five African Lusophone countries, focusing on their claims, agendas and campaigns. The analysis of the organizations considers the broader social and political context of each country, presenting their specificities, namely in what regards to religion and regime type. The premise of the paper is that LGBTQI activism is a social and political activism focusing on human rights concepts and agendas. So the paper asks how human rights are conceptualized and entangled with concepts of self determination or sexual minorities on the rhetoric of the Lusophone organizations. The paper also recurs to social movements theory to explain the social mobilization, the agendas and the aimed political and social changes these movements advocate.