"From Harvey Milk to Barney Frank, and from ACT UP to Proposition 8, in the past few decades, no political change has been more significant than the civil rights advancements of LGBTQ citizens. LGBTQ Politics is the first authoritative reader to approach the complexity of queer politics from a political science persective, bringing together original contributions from leadings scholars in the field on key issues in LGBTQ politics. These original essays cover a wide range of essential topics, including marriage equality, transgender discrimination, gay and lesbian political candidates, LGBTQ human rights advocacy, HIV prevention, and LGBTQ movements of the Global South. The volume also includes a number of critical essays that reflect upon the state of political science as a discipline that has struggled to address queer politics. Contributors draw from a variety of subfields in political science, including comparative politics, political theory, American politics, public law, and international relations. Essays that focus on mainstream institutional politics appear alongside contributions grounded in grassroots movements and critical theory. While some essays express concerns that the democratic basis of the LGBTQ movement has been undermined, others celebrate the movement's successes and offer visions for the future. A comprehensive, thought-provoking, and authoritative collection, LGBTQ Politics: A Critical Reader is required reading for anyone looking to learn about the politics of sexuality"--Back cover.

"LGBTQ Politics in Nicaragua provides the previously untold history of the LGBTQ community's emergence as political actors-from revolutionary guerillas to civil rights activists"--

As LGBTQ claims acquire global relevance, how do sexual politics impact the study of International Relations? This book argues that LGBTQ perspectives are not only an inherent part of world politics but can also influence IR theory-making. LGBTQ politics have simultaneously gained international prominence in the past decade, achieving significant policy change, and provoked cultural resistance and policy pushbacks. Sexuality politics, more so than gender-based theories, arrived late on the theoretical scene in part because sexuality and gender studies initially highlighted post-structuralist thinking, which was hardly accepted in mainstream political science. This book responds to a call for a more empirically motivated but also critical scholarship on this subject. It offers comparative case-studies from regional, cultural and theoretical peripheries to identify ways of rethinking IR. Further, it aims to add to critical theory, broadening the knowledge about previously unrecognized perspectives in an accessible manner. Being aware of preoccupations with the de-queering, disciplining nature of theory establishment in the social sciences, we critically reconsider IR concepts from a particular LGBTQ vantage point and infuse them with queer thinking. Considering the relative dearth of contemporary mainstream IR-theorizing, authors ask what contribution LGBTQ politics can provide for conceiving the political subject, as well as the international structure in which activism is embedded. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of gender politics, cultural studies and international relations theory.

A definitive collection of original essays on queer politics From Harvey Milk to ACT UP to Proposition 8, no political change in the last two decades has been as rapid as the advancement of civil rights for LGBTQ people. As we face a critical juncture in progressive activism, political science, which has been slower than most disciplines to study the complexity of queer politics, must grapple with the shifting landscape of LGBTQ rights and inclusion. LGBTQ Politics analyzes both the successes and obstacles to building the LGBTQ movement over the past twenty years, offering analyses that point to possibilities for the movement’s future. Essays cover a range of topics, including activism, law, and coalition-building, and draw on subfields such as American politics, comparative politics, political theory, and international relations. LGBTQ Politics presents the full range of methodological, ideological, and substantive approaches to LGBTQ politics that exist in political science. Analyses focused on mainstream institutional and elite politics appear alongside contributions grounded in grassroots movements and critical theory. While some essays celebrate the movement’s successes and prospects, others express concerns that its democratic basis has become undermined by a focus on funding power over people power, attempts to fragment the LGBTQ movement from racial, gender and class justice, and a persistent attachment to single-issue politics. A comprehensive, thought-provoking collection, LGBTQ Politics: A Critical Reader will give rise to continued critical discussion of the parameters of LGBTQ politics.

This comprehensive sourcebook covers the evolution of LGBTQ engagement in American politics, from the emergence of gay rights as a political issue in the early 1970s to the present day, when LGBTQ issues occupy a prominent place in politics. This work provides a broad and authoritative survey of the ways in which gay Americans are influencing the tenor and trajectory of U.S. politics at the local, state, and national levels. An encyclopedic section offers thorough coverage of all of the individuals, organizations, cultural forces, political issues, and legal decisions that have combined to elevate the role of LGBTQ people at the ballot box, on the campaign trail, in Washington, and in mayors' offices, city councils, and school boards across the country. Complementing reference entries are in-depth essays on the rising prominence of gay Americans as voters, candidates, public officials, lawmakers, and opinion leaders, providing further context for understanding their impact on modern U.S. political processes and institutions from the perspective of liberals and conservatives alike. Finally, the set includes a collection of important primary source documents that illuminate landmark events, examine gay policy priorities and preferences, and showcase the beliefs and experiences of prominent LGBTQ Americans in the world of politics.

An innovative, data-driven explanation of how public opinion shifted on LGBTQ rights The Path to Gay Rights is the first social science analysis of how and why the LGBTQ movement achieved its most unexpected victory---transforming gay people from a despised group of social deviants into a minority worthy of rights and protections in the eyes of most Americans. The book weaves together a narrative of LGBTQ history with new findings from the field of political psychology to provide an understanding of how social movements affect mass attitudes in the United States and globally. Using data going back to the 1970s, the book argues that the current understanding of how social movements change mass opinion—through sympathetic media coverage and endorsements from political leaders—cannot provide an adequate explanation for the phenomenal success of the LGBTQ movement at changing the public’s views. In The Path to Gay Rights, Jeremiah Garretson argues that the LGBTQ community’s response to the AIDS crisis was a turning point for public support of gay rights. ACT-UP and related AIDS organizations strategically targeted political and media leaders, normalizing news coverage of LGBTQ issues and AIDS and signaled to LGBTQ people across the United States that their lives were valued. The net result was an increase in the number of LGBTQ people who came out and lived their lives openly, and with increased contact with gay people, public attitudes began to warm and change. Garretson goes beyond the story of LGBTQ rights to develop an evidence-based argument for how social movements can alter mass opinion on any contentious topic.

Queer Clout weaves together activism and electoral politics to trace the gay movement's path since the 1950s in Chicago. Stewart-Winter stresses gay people's and African Americans' shared focus on police harassment, highlighting how black political leaders enabled white gays and lesbians to join an emerging liberal coalition in city hall.