No abstract

This article challenges a few assumptions about emerging international norms pertaining to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). First, although UN experts and expert bodies were the first to address SOGI issues at the UN, they have not been the most progressive. Second, social movement actors have not always been the most effective norm entrepreneurs. Third, although states are often accused of failing to take action on SOGI issues, there is a clear, emerging pattern of state involvement and progress. The norms constructed by states are less radical than those constructed by UN experts and civil society organizations, but they are more effective.

Radio propaganda clearly played a role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in which over a million people, mainly Tutsi, were killed. Foreign media and many commentators saw the propaganda as based on ethnic difference. Through an analysis of eighty-six Radio Rwanda and Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines broadcasts, the author shows how reliance on one explanation – be it of ethnicity, politics, ‘race’ or occupation – falls short and oversimplifies. She argues that in fact the broadcasts ‘othered’ the target group by simultaneously drawing on multiple constructions of Hutu and Tutsi identities from many periods in Rwanda’s history.

When a party selects an out lesbian as its leader, do women and LGBT people evaluate that leader more positively? And do they become more likely to vote for that party? We answer these questions using the case of Kathleen Wynne, premier of Ontario, Canada, from 2013 to 2018. We draw on four large-sample surveys conducted by Ipsos before and after the 2011 and 2014 Ontario elections. We compare shifts in best premier choice and vote choice among non-LGBT men, non-LGBT women, LGBT men, and LGBT women from 2011 to 2014. We find gender and LGBT affinity effects in leader evaluations. However, we find that only non-LGBT women and LGBT men were more likely to vote Liberal after Wynne became leader. This article contributes to research on affinity effects by examining LGBT affinity in a real-world election and the intersection of gender and LGBT affinity.

No abstract