40 Years On

Where are LGBT rights?

Gay Liberation Front's 40^th Anniversary Conference

Thursday 19 and Friday 20 May 2011
Wolfson Theatre
New Academic Building

The programme for this event is available here|.

The Conference is funded and supported by The Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD), LSE Africa Initiative and Departments of Sociology, Social Policy, Geography and Environment, Gender Institute and the LSE Library.

GLF

Abstract

On 13th October 1970, the UK branch of the iconic, and iconoclastic, Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was founded at LSE, when LSE student Bob Mellors returned from a summer immersed in the Gay Rights movement in the US. LSE’s crammed campus became the crucible for the translation of the Gay Rights movement from its original framework of the US Civil Rights movement to one more resonant and powerful in the UK context. We marked this anniversary on 13th October 2010 with a reception at LSE (http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/online_resources/lgbt/glf.aspx|).

The 40 year anniversary of the founding of GLF in the UK on the LSE campus gave momentum to look back how LGBT rights have transformed and become globalised in this period. The conference is an opportunity to engage in a discussion on the changing context of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexuals and transgender (LGBT)rights in the last 40 years. It is bringing together academics and activists involved in the development of the global LGBT movement. It will look at the historical context of the development of GLF and bring together current, and globalised, debates on sexuality, equality activism and needs. Questions that are informing this discussion include:

How has the rights context changed in the overdeveloped world with newly emerging questions of for instance in the UK and more broadly ageing, care and housing or disability? What are the changing rights claims and challenges for many people living in developing countries where minority sexualities remain (or are becoming) either suppressed or criminalized? What are the different ways of understanding strategies and technologies for sexuality rights in different contexts? What are the lessons to be learned from an internationalist perspective? What vulnerabilities are global forms of rights-based activism creating within local contexts? How are global agencies also challenging gay rights globally and specifically in the developing world? Furthermore, since 1980s HIV/AIDS is the context within which these discussion are taking place. Therefore, it is essential to consider the implications of being from a marginalized and criminalized sexuality in a country and also having essential medical needs. What are the implications of contextual socio-political differences on these interactions?

The conference will be run in a number of different ways, strategically combining traditional panel sessions including key note address with more open discussion based sessions. By using 'witness seminar' methodology as a part of the conference process we will produce new research material for the LSE Archives. This method is a structured roundtable discussion with key protagonists associated with the genesis of GLF in the UK in early 1970s as it changed from its origins at LSE into a movement with national political and social impact. This will be followed by panel discussions that focusing on the following issue areas:

Changing rights in the Global Context: Challenges and Confrontations
Changing Social Needs and Demands
Archives, History and Historiography

The final session of the conference will be a 'Think In'. This will be a less structured session than the Witness seminar, with all conference attendees, LSE staff and students being invited to participate. It will bring the discussions together to reflect on contemporary issues and experiences in the 21st Century (and follows in the tradition of the original GLF "Think Ins").

Participants

The participants of the conference include:

Matt Cook Birkbeck College
Sonia Corrêa the founder of SOS-Corpo- Instituto Feminista para a Democracia (Brazil) and coordinator for sexual and reproductive health rights of DAWN, Development Alternative with Women for a New Era
Vikram Doctor The Economic Times-India
Silvia Gallotti LSE Library
Joel Gustave Nana Executive Director African Men for Sexual Health and Rights(AMSHeR)
Sally Hines University of Leeds
Suhraiya Jivraj Oxford Brookes University
Katherine Johnson University of Brighton
Akshay Khanna Institute of Development Studies
Robert Kulpa Birkbeck College
Anthony Manion GALA Wits archives
Frank Mugisha Uganda Executive Director Ugandan Sexual Minorities Group
David Paternotte FNRS/Université libre de Bruxelles
Rahul Rao SOAS
Jeff Redding Saint Louis University Law School
Helen Sauntson University of Birmingham
Tamsila Tauqir Director of the Safra Project

Registration

However due to space restrictions prior registration is required. If you are planning to join us for the conference please e-mail: m.h.seckinelgin@lse.ac.uk| or d.e.josephs@lse.ac.uk| to reserve your place.

We do hope you will feel able to join us at the conference and we look forward to hearing from you.

Organisers

Hakan Seckinelgin (Deaprtment of Social Policy/LSE Global Governance)
Sue Donnelly (LSE Archives).

Organizing Committee:

Suki Ali (Sociology)
Sharad Chari (Department of Geography and Environment)
Sue Donnelly (LSE Archives)
Hakan Seckinelgin (Department of Social Policy/LSE Global Governance) .