Queer Cultures and Democracy

Catalog description

In the last ten years, several Latin American nations have witnessed decisive progress in the legal recognition of non-normative sexualities and gender identities. Argentina passed the same-sex marriage law in 2010 and the gender identity law in 2011, followed by Uruguay in 2013; Colombia also approved the legal recognition of same sex couples, and in Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, the pressure of queer demands and visibility in the public sphere is stronger than ever. The conventional map of “advanced democracies” crafting models of democratization that could be exported to less developed nations seems definitely challenged: a new understanding of the complex, and multiple temporalities of queer cultures in North and South America is more necessary than ever. In order to explore this rich and multi-layered landscape, this course wants to trace and reconstruct the historical detours of queer cultures in Buenos Aires and New York as cities that epitomize queer struggles in Argentina and the US. Taking as starting point the present context of growing acceptance and inclusion of queer citizens both in Latin America and the US, the course revisits the last three decades in order to question the dominant and frequently reductive narratives of steady, lineal progress. This class is aimed at developing an understanding of the nuances and contradictions of this complex historical transformation.