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Abstract
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) human rights are often assumed to travel from the core to the periphery, namely from the Global North to the Global South. However, these rights flows and resistances are more complex than a unidirectional model might suggest. Using a transnational perspective, we consider resistances to LGBT rights in places where LGBT rights are supposedly assured. In Canada and Great Britain, where various forms of equities legislation for LGBT people have been enacted, there is an increasing opposition to LGBT gains. The transnational circulation of these oppositional discourses can be seen in how Canadian and British organizations talk to, and about, each other and illustrate transnational networks that create resistances in the places where “we have won.” This questions a sole focus on resistances in places that do not have LGBT equalities legislation, usually those outside the Global North and associated with “less developed others.”
Notes
Cisgender refers to people whose gender identity fits with the gender they are assigned at birth and the gender that they are read as.
We use Great Britain to refer to England, Scotland, and Wales because this is the focus of our article, which does not include Northern Ireland. The UK/United Kingdom also includes Northern Ireland and so we do not use this term. We use British/Britain throughout the article.
There have been numerous attempts over the last decade or so to build alliances across religious divides including coalitions between Muslims, Jews, and Christian Evangelical organizations. These have been largely driven by responses to single events and have not been sustainable (Herman Citation1994; Malloy Citation2011).
We do not reference any of the online material in this article for ethical reasons, which include giving online traffic and validity to the websites through their association with an academic journal.
The Marriage (Same Sex) Act was passed in 2013, with the first marriages in March 2014; as these data were collected in 2011–2012, it does not reflect on this “victory,” which we hope to do in future work.