When States Come Out: Transnational Movements and the Diffusion of LGBTI Rights in Europe

In the last two decades, the LGBTI movement has gained momentum that is arguably unprecedented in speed and suddenness when compared to other human rights movements. Phillip M. Ayoub, Associate Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College, investigates the recent history of this transnational movement in Europe, as well as backlashes to it, focusing on the diffusion of the norms it champions and the overarching question of why the trajectories of socio-legal recognition for LGBT minorities are so different across states. The talk makes the case that a politics of visibility has engendered the interactions between movements and states that empower marginalized people - mobilizing actors to demand change, influencing the spread of new legal standards, and weaving new ideas into the fabrics of societies. It documents how this double-edged process of 'coming out' empowers some marginalized social groups by moving them to the center of political debate and public recognition and making it possible for them to obtain rights to which they have due claim. This lecture was given by Phillip Ayoub, Associate Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College, as part of the European Union Center's virtual fall reception on September 15, 2020, and the talk was co-sponsored by the College of Law and the Department of Gender and Women's Studies.

Dr. Ayoub is the author of When States Come Out: Europe’s Sexual Minorities and the Politics of Visibility (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and his articles have appeared in Comparative Political Studies, the European Journal of International Relations, Political Research Quarterly, the European Journal of Political Research, Mobilization, the European Political Science Review, the Journal of Human Rights, Social Politics and Social Movement Studies, among others.