Abstract
The “revolution” to which this book’s title alludes is astonishing. In a region historically known for glorifying heterosexual male dominance (“machismo”), a rising wave of pro-LGBT policy has yet to crest. Nearly all countries have banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; a majority allow out soldiers to serve in the armed forces; over half permit people to legally change the gender assigned to them at birth; 40% provide some kind of relationship recognition for same-sex couples, and, in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, parts of Mexico, and Uruguay, same-sex couples can both get married and adopt children. What explains the uneven rollout of this revolution? As Omar G Encarnación skillfully demonstrates, the “domestic context has worked to mediate the speed and scope with which international gay rights ideas have penetrated the region” (p. 187). In particular, he highlights the role of shrewd LGBT revolutionaries.
Encarnación challenges conventional wisdom regarding the achievement of LGBT (or other progressive) rights: their diffusion from the Global North to the Global South. Whether focused on culture, rights, or policy, international approaches cannot explain the uneven regional development of LGBT rights, or the distinct strategies their proponents have deployed. Moreover, they ignore the fact that US organizations support anti-homosexual lobbying and legislation in the region. Encarnación could be forgiven for joining analysts who prioritize domestic factors such as movement resources and strategies, as well as the opportunities afforded or denied by political systems.
Instead, he advances a complex argument that takes both international influences and domestic factors into account while asserting the protagonism of strategic movement “crafters.” He does so one analytic step at a time. Chapter One confronts the “flawed conventional wisdom” of international explanations with regional reality. Chapter Two turns to the factors that have had an impact on regional receptivity towards LGBT rights. It nuances the modernization thesis (more education, less religion = more tolerance for homosexuality) with a focus on institutional factors (constitutions that include rights protections, decentralization, and strong judiciaries). To this it adds a political Left that has shifted from rejection to active support for some rights. Encarnación then substantiates his argument with an in-depth case study of regional leader Argentina – the first Latin American country to legislate same-sex marriage (2010), followed quickly by one of the most progressive gender identity statutes in the world (2012) – and contrasts it with neighboring Brazil, which has been unable to achieve such legislative victories.
Chapter Three focuses on the historical context of Argentina, from the criminalization of male homosexuality as sexual deviance; through its outright repression in the 1960s and 1970s; to the trauma that haunted activists in the democratic 1980s. It traces the origins of a movement that was small but savvy: the major organization remained politically autonomous, adopted the politically legitimized human rights master frame, and adapted international ideas initially transmitted by those who were forced into exile.
Chapter Four focuses on the contemporary Argentine LGBT success story. Taking into account shifting political, institutional, and international factors, it emphasizes the movement’s development and borrowing from the influential human rights movement. Beyond framing LGBT rights claims as human rights, activists focused on changing public opinion; cultivating allies in the state and across parties; and venue shopping a legal strategy through courts and legislatures until they achieved their goals. Chapter Five contrasts the Brazilian movement’s failure to achieve legislative successes, centrally due to the way in which homophobia has found powerful expression in an evangelical movement allied with other conservative forces that, together, claim up to 60% of the lower house of an institutionally dysfunctional Congress; and, ironically, the close relationship that the movement has made with state agencies and a powerful leftist party that has proved an inconsistent ally.
The arguments and empirics of this book are compelling and persuasive, particularly with respect to international, institutional, and movement factors. Perhaps due to the paucity of historical narratives, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people are largely missing from Chapter 3, until conflicts over gender and gender identity erupt within the major organization of the time; and it would have been useful to know more about the role of inter-movement dynamics, briefly mentioned with respect to feminists and Afro-Brazilians.
This astute work concludes with comparative “insights” into the successes of and obstacles to achieving LGBT rights around the world, and particularly in the USA. Encarnación does not shy away from those obstacles, including regressive international influences and the coexistence of progressive policy with homophobic and transphobic violence. To address such conditions at a time when conservative and radical right-wing movements and leaders are ever more adeptly dominating democracies will require even more sophisticated strategies from savvy LGBT revolutionaries.