Community Organizing Against Homophobia and Heterosexism: The World Through Rainbow-Colored Glasses

by Samantha Wehbi

Overview

Examine how community organizing can help eliminate sexual oppression!

This book presents insights from activists working in dramatically diverse cultures toward a common goalthe eradication of sexual oppression. Contributors share their experiences in organizing for sexual emancipation in many parts of the world, documenting progress in transforming oppressive sexual attitudes, policies, and practices, while acknowledging the long road to sexual democracy that remains to be traveled. Community Organizing Against Homophobia and Heterosexism: The World Through Rainbow-Colored Glasses highlights the importance of building alliances with social service providers and community organizers, of physical space as an element of identity-building, of understanding the tension between members of sexual minority communities and their other communities of belonging, and the transformation of individual efforts into movements necessary to affect long-term social change.

Community Organizing Against Homophobia and Heterosexism presents chapters that focus on community organizing against homophobia and heterosexism, bringing to light the history and contemporary face of resistance in global contexts. The book highlights practical actions to liberate sexual and gender expressions, including:

• the challenge of organizing within a Two-Spirit (LGBT people of Aboriginal descent) community in Montreal
• the organization of Tongzhi (LGBT and their supporters) rights in Hong Kong
• the work of Yoesuf, a Muslim association that works on battling homophobia and xenophobia in communities in the Netherlands
• the foundation of GALF, a Peruvian feminist group dedicated to organizing against lesbophobia and heterosexism
• the development of GALZ, the gay liberation movement in Zimbabwe

Community Organizing Against Homophobia and Heterosexism: The World Through Rainbow-Colored Glasses is an essential resource for social service professionals, community activists, and anyone else working to eliminate sexual oppression in all forms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781317992486
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/13/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	122
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Wehbi, Samantha

Table of Contents

• About the Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• All the Bridges that We Build: Lesbophobia and Sexism Within the Women’s and Gay Movements in Peru
• Namaji: Two-Spirit Organizing in Montreal, Canada
• Yoesuf: An Islamic Idea with Dutch Quality
• Towards Equality Through Legal Reform: Empowerment and Mobilization of the Tongzhi (LBGT) Community in Hong Kong
• A Fair Representation: GALZ and the History of the Gay Movement in Zimbabwe
• Index
• Reference Notes Included

What People are Saying About This

Francis J. Turner

IMPORTANT AND INFORMATIVE. . . . Stands as an example of a much-needed newer form of international scholarship which stresses the necessity of understanding similarities between and within cultures in addressing all forms of oppression, and in sharing our experiences on a worldwide basis. AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION to research involving the strategies, complexities, and diversities of addressing oppression within and across national and cultural realities. Of particular impact is the positive note imbedded in the five contributions that exemplify the potentials of concern, creativity, courage, strategy, energy, and realism as the building blocks of effective community action.
—Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Caryl Abrahams

ADDRESSES A SIGNIFICANT GAP IN THE LITERATURE on issue-based community organizing. The case studies illustrate the power and control concerns resultant from colonialism, fundamentalism, and fear of diversity. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.
—Visiting Professor of Community Development, Prairie View A&M University, Texas