The Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights research project involves working collaboratively with community partners, both local and international. This article presents the research currently being conducted and some of the challenges in undertaking knowledge engagement between academia and the community with the project’s Canadian, African, and Caribbean partners by means of participatory action research (PAR). Specifically, the article gives examples of the project’s work and explores the following topics: work with Global South partners and marginalized communities; strategic alliances; knowledge production and mobilization; and methodologies that have contributed to successes or challenges. Knowledge engagement at the international level, with its variances in resources, power, and autonomy, increases the demands of such work and the need for sensitivity in reaching the goals of the project and those of all of its stakeholders.Résumé: Le projet Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights implique le travaille en collaboration avec des partenaires communautaires, à la fois locaux et internationaux. Cet article présente les recherches actuellement menées et des défis à entreprendre l’engagement de connaissances entre le milieu universitaire et nos partenaires communautaires canadiens, africains et des Caraïbes. Le document donne des exemples de notre travail et explore les thèmes suivants : travailler avec les partenaires du Sud planétaire et les communautés marginalisées; les alliances stratégiques; la production de connaissances et son mobilisation; les défis de la recherche participative; ainsi que des méthodologies qui ont contribué à nos succès ou défis. L’engagement de connaissances au niveau international avec des écarts en matière de ressources, de pouvoir et d’autonomie contribue aux défis d’un tel travail et le besoin de sensibilité pour atteindre les objectifs du projet et l’ensemble de ses parties prenantes.
This article explores the nature of legal struggles surrounding same-sex marriage in the USA and Canada, focusing specifically on the ways in which the cultural power of law is used to frame claims of injustice and to develop strategies of political resistance. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from the literatures on 'law and social movements' and 'legal consciousness', the article compares the claims-making discourse and strategies of same-sex couples seeking access to legal civil marriage in the USA and Canada. Based in part on interviews with same-sex couples, lawyers and political activists, the article demonstrates the ways in which the claims of law have been used to frame political strategies in places where same-sex marriage is 'illegal', the ways in which claims of legal equality are enacted, produced and explained by same-sex couples, and the ways in which equality discourse is deployed as a strategic political resource in the struggle over same-sex marriage.
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