Forgotten Intersectional Cracks in the Origins of the Queer Transnational Movement: Gender, Race, and Third Worldism in the Early Action of the International LGBTI Association (1978-1990)

The International Gay Association (IGA), currently known as the International LGBTI Association (ILGA), was founded in the English city of Coventry in 1978. At the time, activists had come together in response to a call from a Dutch queer organization to establish coordination of activist action at the European level. The outcome of this first meeting was to establish an association with a global scope to advocate for ‘gay’ rights at an international level. Despite the international coverage, the activists present at the foundation meeting were all men from countries that the current political geography would categorize as part of the Global North. Despite this initial composition, the years to come saw intense debates within the newly founded association with regard to race, gender, and the place of “third world gays,” reminiscent of what later would become known as ‘intersectionality’ in critical theoretical contributions. This paper examines the role of these discussions in the early years of the IGA (1978-1990) and identifies the actors who spearheaded these conversations. More concretely, it asks: How were issues of race, gender, and Third Worldism addressed by IGA in its early activist actions? How much influence did these issues have in setting the overall agenda of the organization? And what concrete actions within the association addressed the intersection of these issues with the struggle for sexual liberation? The paper draws on archival research conducted at ILGA’s Archives in London and Amsterdam and develops the analysis through the examination of the final reports and minutes from IGA’s annual meetings. The preliminary findings suggest that, despite being a space with a predominance of participants who held hegemonic identities in terms of race and gender, intersectional debates managed to find cracks to influence the actions of the nascent queer transnational movement.