Sexuality, rights and personhood: tensions in a transnational world

Abstract

BackgroundThis article discusses what happens when normative ‘global’ discourses of rights and individuated sexual identity confront the messiness of ‘local’ realities. It considers the tensions that emerge when the relationship between sexual and social identities is not obvious and the implications of such tensions for public health and sexual rights activism. These questions are addressed through debates over the naming of male-to-male sexualities and desires in the context of globalization and the growth of a large NGO (non-governmental organization) sector in urban Bangladesh.MethodsThe material in the paper draws on a research project undertaken in 2008-9 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A fundamental objective was to produce a contextualized understanding of sexuality in Dhaka city. Methods used included structured interviews, focus group discussions and informal conversations with a range of participants (students, factory workers, public health professionals and sexual minorities). The aim was to generate a conceptual and analytical framework around sexuality and rights rather than to undertake an empirical survey of any one population.ResultsAs descriptors, globalized identity categories such as Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), used by public health providers, the state and donors; and gay/lesbian, invoked by human rights activists and transnational NGOs, are too narrow to capture the fluid and highly context-specific ways in which gender and sexually nonconforming persons understand themselves in Bangladesh. Further, class position mediates to a significant degree the reception, appropriation or rejection of transnational categories such as MSM and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT). The tension is reflected in the sometimes fraught relations between service providers to MSM, the people they serve and an emerging group who identify as LGBT.ConclusionA simple politics of recognition will be inadequate to the task of promoting health and human rights for all; such a strategy would effectively exclude individuals who do not necessarily connect their sexual practices with a specific sexual or social identity.

‘Leave No One Behind’: Gender, Sexuality and the Sustainable Development Goals

“…The article highlights the distinction between those who call themselves gay (well-educated with higher incomes) and those who are defined under the umbrella term MSM (generally poor and socially marginalised). The study indicates that we cannot assume that sexual conduct and sexual identity are the same; and highlights the danger of homogenising categories that invariably alter pre-existing social meanings of same-sex sexual activities (Siddiqi 2011). Similar findings emerged from empirical research on the SPLP in Nepal (Coyle and Boyce 2015;Boyce and Coyle 2013) and in India (Dhall and Boyce 2015).…”

Sexuelle Rechte als befähigende Verletzungen: Ambivalenzen einer Politik und Sprache der sexuellen (Menschen-)Rechte im Entwicklungskontext

“…Das Konzept der sexuellen Rechte und seine Fest-und Einschreibung in inter-/transnationale Rechts-, Politik-und Organisationsstrukturen wird jedoch auch innerhalb postkolonialer, feministischer, LGBTIQ-und AIDS/HIV-aktivistischer Theorie-und Bewegungskontexte nicht unkritisch bejaht und ausschließlich als ‚progressive' Entwicklung bewertet. (Entwicklungspolitische) Forderungen nach der Durchsetzung von sexuellen (Menschen-)Rechten (nur) im globalen Süden werden dabei besonders in ihrer Verstrickung mit ungleichen epistemischen und materiellen (Gewalt-)Verhältnissen sowie dem Fortwirken kolonialer und ‚zivilisationsmissionarischer' Diskurse problematisiert (Stychin 2004;Sharma 2008;Thoreson 2009;Waites 2009;Lind 2010b;Siddiqi 2011;Roseman/Miller 2011;Cruz-Malavé/Manalansan IV 2002).…”

Introduction: contextualising “rights” in sexual and reproductive health

“…In the South Asian context, there has always been a developed cultural language of male non-conforming sexualities which does not map onto these globalized categories [30]. …”

“…Dina Siddiqi’s paper on sexuality, rights and personhood examines what happens when normative, ‘global’ discourses on rights which assume clearly individuated sexual identities, confront the messiness of ‘local’ realities in Bangladesh [ 30 ]. Drawing on recent research conducted in Dhaka city on changing understandings of sexuality among students, workers in the garments industry and self-identified sexual minorities, Siddiqi examines the local realities of identity politics as they manifest in debates over the naming of male, and particularly male-to-male, sexualities and forms of desire.…”

“…Drawing on recent research conducted in Dhaka city on changing understandings of sexuality among students, workers in the garments industry and self-identified sexual minorities, Siddiqi examines the local realities of identity politics as they manifest in debates over the naming of male, and particularly male-to-male, sexualities and forms of desire. She considers the implications of the emerging tensions for both public health and sexual rights activism [ 30 ].…”