When States Come Out
Europe's Sexual Minorities and the Politics of Visibility

Focusing on the transnational LGBT movement that has gained unprecedented momentum, this study is a timely contribution to debates both scholarly and popular.

Phillip M. Ayoub (Author)

9781107535893, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 May 2016

295 pages, 25 b/w illus. 13 tables
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.7 cm, 0.43 kg

'More than just a sophisticated case study, When States Come Out is a resource for anyone seeking to promote human rights at the civil society and state levels.' Ethics & International Affairs

In the last two decades, the LGBT movement has gained momentum that is arguably unprecedented in speed and suddenness when compared to other human rights movements. This book investigates the recent history of this transnational movement in Europe, focusing on the diffusion of the norms it champions and the overarching question of why, despite similar international pressures, the trajectories of socio-legal recognition for LGBT minorities are so different across states. The book makes the case that a politics of visibility has engendered the interactions between movements and states that empower marginalized people - mobilizing actors to demand change, influencing the spread of new legal standards, and weaving new ideas into the fabrics of societies. It documents how this process of 'coming out' empowers marginalized social groups by moving them to the center of political debate and public recognition and making it possible for them to obtain rights to which they have due claim.

1. Introduction
2. The politics of visibility and LGBT rights in Europe
3. Transnational movement: opportunities, actors, and mechanisms
4. Complying with new norms: LGBT rights legislation
5. Internalizing new norms: attitudes towards sexual minorities
6. Poland and Slovenia's responses to international norms
7. Visibility in movement and transnational politics.

Subject Areas: Probability & statistics [PBT], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]