As IDF soldiers raise the rainbow flag over the rubble of Gaza as the far-right rolls back trans rights in western ‘liberal democracies’, there is a growing popular consciousness that liberation from imperialism and gendered and sexual oppression are bound together. This session explores the tensions and contradictions in organising across difference towards this shared liberation, and the relationship between gender, sexuality and imperialism under capitalism today.
‘Pinkwashing’ and ‘homonationalism’ emerged to explain how LGBTQ+ identities had tied to Western capitalist states. Today, in the context of genocide in Gaza, how accurately do these terms still describe the relationship between sexuality and Western imperialism?
This session will:
- Develop our understanding of the relationship between sexual and gender politics and imperialism generally and in our current reactionary conjuncture
- Consider whether and how ruling class strategies of ‘pinkwashing’ and ‘homonationalism’ still hold
- Foster discussions about how to organise across difference and overcome divisions between sexual and gender liberation and anti-imperialism