Community Organizing Against Homophobia and Heterosexism (PDF)

Examine how community organizing can help eliminate sexual oppression!

This book presents insights from activists working in dramatically diverse cultures toward a common goal—the 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.