So Sochi...: Understanding the Complex Landscape of International Queer Politics and Interventions

The advent of the 2014 Sochi Games generated a flurry of debate among queer folks as to the role of domestic activists in internationals justice movements. We saw some major corporations attacked via boycotts due to their business relationships in Russia; we saw other corporations exalted for their \u27social responsibility\u27 in promoting LGBTQ interests. As this movement weighs intervention in Russian LGBTQ politics alongside other travesties- e.g. the state-sanctioned regime of anti-gay violence in Uganda- situating our own actions within an increasingly global landscape becomes increasingly important. I\u27m interested in pushing participants to think critically about policy or movement interventions in international queer politics and the ways those actions may or may not perpetuate American/Western hegemony. This hot topics section will concentrate itself, then, on the ways that queer politics in the United States are intricately connected to a global struggle for gender and sexual liberation. Participants would be welcome to address any and all of the above topics as we think together about the ways we relate to our queer siblings locally, nationally, and internationally