This panel focuses on the theme of identity pertaining to sex, gender and sexuality and the challenges related to such in public law in local, international and supranational contexts. Drawing attention to the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights, and the local Hong Kong jurisdiction, the panel explores the diverse ways in which...
Homoglobalism: Global Gay Governance
In 2016, the UN appointed an Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), and the World Bank announced the appointment of an advisor on SOGI. Both nominations are part of a wider trend of global institutions beginning to engage with LGBT issues. My paper considers what...
Rethinking Gay Visibility
This paper draws on theories of visual culture to posit a paradigm of ‘gay visibility’ for legal studies. It demonstrates that visibility is critical to gay life and politics, but that it operates as a paradox because it simultaneously advances and undermines minority rights and identity. It then analyzes the ways in which this paradox...
Sex/Gender Rights and Untimely Evolution in International Human Rights Law
In international human rights law (IHRL), women‘s rights have been a staple of UN activity since the 1990s. LGBT* rights have entered the UN stage more recently via focus on non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and developments such as the Yogyakarta Principles. Women‘s and LGBT* rights, however, continue to be perceived as distinct....
The ECtHR‘s LGBT* rights case law: policing, shifting, and subverting (?) ‘borders‘
At a time when the trajectory of LGBT* rights recognition in international human rights law is widely celebrated, this paper examines the policing, shifting, and potential subversion of different boundaries in supranational LGBT* rights jurisprudence. Focusing especially on gender designation, LGBT* asylum claims, and the bounds of popular acceptability as they arise in the LGBT*...