CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Al-Kurdi, Ahmad |
|---|---|
| Title | Contested Colonialities? Disputes and Transnational Linkages in Lebanese LGBT Movement-Building |
| Summary | Organized LGBT activism has a nearly two-decade long history in Lebanon, with the first LGBT organization in the West Asia North Africa region being registered in 2004 in Beirut. Visible LGBT organizing in a region that is often identified with hostile social attitudes and state repression towards sexual and gender non-conformity drew much interest both in Western popular imagination and academia. A strong interpretation of such activism is offered by the Palestinian-American scholar Joseph Massad, who conceptualizes gay activism in the Arab region—and Lebanon in particular—as a form of Western imperial imposition. What many of these academic accounts fail to grasp is that rather than being a homogenous movement, the history of LGBT activism in Lebanon is fraught with tensions and internal debates. Building on a close reading of these debates and interviews conducted with key LGBT activists in Lebanon and the Western Lebanese diaspora, my thesis will demonstrate that while the trope of the ‘West’ is a common point of reference both as a source of inspiration and a point of criticism in the discourse of activists, the Western vs. local binary does not fully structure these debates, they in fact cross-cut that binary. The thesis argues that such a recurrent, but flexible employment of the Western vs. local binary derives from three main sources: the plurality of ‘Western’ models of activism to draw on, an engagement of Lebanese LGBT activists with such different models of activism via transnational migration and diasporic relations, and a hegemonic interpretation both in the local political discourse as well as Western academia of LGBT activism being a Western imposition. The thesis further argues that these disputes play a productive role in the development of the LGBT movement in Lebanon, as they facilitate the creation of a diverse, resilient movement able to adapt its strategies to respond to new challenges. |
| Supervisor | Jones-Gailani, Nadia; Rajaram, Prem Kumar |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/al-kurdi_ahmad.pdf |
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