Transnational Queer Organizing Against War Across Class and Race

Queer feminist organizing has played a significant role in women’s peacebuilding work, including in anti-war and abolitionist organizing. Yet queer identities as a part of their organizing are continually marginalized in the histories of the women’s peacebuilding movement, and feminist strategies for resisting patriarchal violence. This marginalization is increasingly evident amid growing anti-gender attacks, including those that are explicitly targeting transgender women. Without recognizing this legacy of organizing, the opportunities for and legacies of collaboration between women’s movements and LGBTIQ movements as a form of resistance can be missed. Resources in the Human Sexuality Collection offer insights into some of the personal records of lesbians involved in organizing including across the US and UK, as well as through some of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that may have been engaged in peace and justice work not often viewed central to the peacebuilding movement. For example, the group Queers for Economic Justice illustrates the importance of the groundbreaking intersectional practices of this NGO, and the groups approach to addressing economic injustice through a queer lens. These transnational efforts of LGBTIQ resistance are important to understand to inform ongoing efforts to address gendered harms in global conflict, through non-violent resistance.