2025/12/11 by João Florêncio · 1 voice
Psychology · Social Sciences · #African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues #Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
paper · doi:10.1017/9781009299671.022
openalex created_date 2025/12/11 · openalex publication_date 2025/12/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/13
Popular histories of the homosexual movement in the so-called Global North have tended to paint a picture of struggle and emancipation of a sexual minority, from the early activist decades of the twentieth century to the decriminalisation of sodomy, the legalisation of gay marriage, and gay adoption. According to this narrative, LGB history is a history of rights fought for and earnt by a politicised people. Yet, as scholars have noted, many of those victories have not resulted in a break with extant ideologies of citizenship, family, or kinship but instead strengthened them, ensuring the survival and reproduction of the body of the state. This chapter draws from theories of the body politic and immunity to argue that the purported victories of the homosexual movement marked a transformation of the state’s own immunological paradigms from immunity-as-defence to immunity-as-tolerance, offering important lessons to other contemporary identity movements.