As you may know, I have been reading and analysing some books which reflect current situations, and have decided to start a series of reviews for the blog. This is the second review, of The Global Fight Against LGBTI Rights by Phillip M. Ayoub and Kristina Stoeckl. Read the first review here.
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Phillip M. Ayoub is a political scientist with research interests in international relations, LGBTI politics, and human rights. He is a professor at University College London and has written many publications on LGBTI movements, European politics, and transnational activism. His scholarly work gives him a concrete foundation to comprehend the global dimensions of LGBTI rights and the political forces driving them.
Kristina Stoeckl is a political scientist and sociologist with specialized knowledge in religion, political theory, and conservative movements. She has studied religious actors’ contributions to international politics and international values, particularly moral and family values. Her field of specialty provides insight into how conservatism resists LGBTI rights and the ideology that informs the resistance. Their integrated perspectives enable a comprehensive examination of both the advancement and resistance of LGBTI rights, bridging a respect for activist movements with the influence of political and religious conservatism.
The book is structured within seven chapters, each of which examines a different aspect of these transnational advocacy networks (TANs). The introduction and Chapter One combine to provide the necessary background information and overview of transnational networks themselves. The authors define this chapter as “exploring the factors—including the organizing of groups like ILGA—that have affected the global emergence of SOGI rights and recognition” (Ayoub and Stoeckl 35). They define SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) and begin to describe for the first time how transnational politics connect local and global SOGI rights in ways that “parallel the boomerang” (36), which sets up their coming thesis. They define norm discussion and brokerage and argue that norm brokers “aid diffusion by framing the international elements of the norm in a domestically familiar discourse so that it resonates with the local traditions of a given society” (40). The authors cite both ILGA and the UN, specifically the Human Rights Council, as sites for these networks, providing both examples of specific assemblies and historical context. They close with an introduction to transnational channels that activists have brokered, which they claim “connect states to each other and to their international communities, make SOGI norms visible both interpersonally to other LGBTIQ people and to the broader public” (51). They finally present their thesis of the helix model, claiming these anti-SOGI movements as strands resembling DNA, in that they operate in reference to each other, pursuing their own goals in awareness of the other group, pushing and pulling against each other. This idea is the centerpiece throughout the book.
Chapter Two dives into the relevant social movements and history behind these TANs. It outlines “transnationally networked social movements and civil society actors that define their goal and purpose as combating SOGI rights and the ideas, tactics, and governments that sustain them” (57). The chapter follows a loose chronological order, beginning with the 1970s discussing the early days of moral conservatism in the United States and in Europe. Generally, Western European societies were more secularized than American ones. Less people went to church and identified as religious, which meant society was moving towards liberal and democratic processes. Then, American culture wars began in the 1990s. The authors argue these were because of three key reasons: “ debates at the United Nations and the strategies of the Vatican; the creation of international Christian Right advocacy groups as a reaction to the legal successes of transnational progressive human rights movements; and the end of the Cold War, which brought new players to the international scene” (67) As national churches lost power and influence the policy decisions of their governments conservative civil society organizations thrived. They support these claims by explaining how the end of communism specifically amplified the globalization of the American culture wars. First, “the religious revival created an enormous echo chamber for American Christian Right ideas and ample opportunities for moral conservative organizations to actively spread their ideas” and second, the religious nationalism made societies “ill-disposed to the messages of pluralism, diversity, and nondiscrimination sent out by SOGI rights activists and European institutions” (79). The authors conclude with a description of the network today, describing how American moral conservatism was one side of the cultural divide; in Western Europe, it was Christian democrats who were all about compromises between religion and societal progress; and in the formerly communist countries, it was all about connected to nationalism. The movement today is a mix of all these origins.
Chapter Three centers on Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs). The authors mainly claim that moral conservative TANS have centered themselves against SOGI rights and consider themselves an alternative to “the perceived liberal political mainstream” (95). The rest of the chapter supports this claim, delving into five examples of INGOs within the conservative movement, both how they work and how they are connected. The first example TAN, The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an organization centered around the idea of the ‘natural family’, one consisting of a “cis-gendered, heterosexual, married couple and their biological offspring” (98). CitizenGo is an international campaigning platform and website that contains petitions against various topics as resistance to SOGI rights. Next is the Global Home Education Exchange (GHEX), which consists of “conservative ideas across generations through moral conservative and religious education” (104). This branch of homeschooling is focused on instilling a Christian worldview into the homeschooling curriculum internationally as a way to fight perceived secularism, moral relativism, and libertinism in public schools. The fourth example is the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is an American legal advocacy group intended to protect “religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and family around the world” (107). Last is the Political Network for Values (PNV), which is a platform for dialogue and connection between conservative politicians. Combined, these TANs reach all over the world and host many summits and conferences globally, and have continued to diversify over time. The authors also mention that catholic aristocratic circles and activist families play an important role in TANs, as they regularly participate and are highly visible, and readers are warned that “their relevance in the creation and maintenance of a stable Christian Right institutional and intellectual complex must not be underestimated” (122). Money for these organizations comes from NGOs, foundations, religious organizations, and political parties from the United States, the Russian Federation, and the EU, though these flows are not always transparent. Finally, the chapter closes with how these actors engage and interact with each other: depending on informal and personal networking of core groups within them, as well as programmatic interactions which attract members, and finally coordinated actions, such as protests or petitions.
Chapter Four further supports the claims of Chapter Three, though this time using case studies of a selection of key states, countries, and international organizations that play a central role in supporting specifically transnational moral conservative activism as their evidence. Now, here, the authors acknowledge that “states are not uniform entities that act by themselves, and their positions also depend largely on specific governmental action, which varies on the basis of domestic constituencies and electoral outcomes” (134) and that state perspectives are not permanent or impermeable. They offer the United States as an example, which, spending on foreign politics and current administration, can both facilitate or oppose SOGI rights. But they clarify their choice to focus on these states by reminding audiences that “state-led opposition to SOGI rights is also increasingly leveraged internationally ” and that states “have played an outsized role as leaders of the global resistance to SOGI rights today” (134). Specifically, this chapter provides Russia and Hungary as examples of vocal opposition to SOGI rights. They discuss Russia and its justification of war against Ukraine for a myriad of proposed reasons, one of which was “the defense of Orthodox Christians against Western values and gay Pride parades” (138), as Russia does have laws against “Public actions directed at propaganda of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderism among minors” (139). It was the first country within the Council of Europe to reject the authority of the European Court of Human Rights so directly. They then define Russian conservatism as “different ideological concepts rallied for political prominence: patriotism, monarchism, nationalism, imperialism, and traditional values” (142) and that these became prominent in opposing SOGI rights because of three reasons: “the Kremlin’s search for a conservative content that would stand out as anti-Western, illiberal, and defiant of international human rights; moral conservative actors, including the Russian Orthodox Church, that formulate and provide this content using the resistance to SOGI rights as a central marker and as a topic that creates coherence with moral conservative actors elsewhere; and a Russian mainstream society that holds largely negative and exploitable views on LGBTIQ issues, and therefore a mainstream seldom motivated to question official discourse and policy in that domain”(143). Moving to Hungary, the authors outline various laws against SOGI rights, some of which were inspired by Russian legislation, all of which were condemned by the EU but praised by conservative Christians in the West, including Donald Trump and Fox News. The chapter also supports their transnational claims using the Russian Orthodox Church, which played a key role in banning “propaganda of homosexuality” in Russian federal law. The authors argue “that in the context of the global resistances to SOGI rights, the Moscow Patriarchate has acted as agenda-setter for the Russian state, and in doing so, compliments the more-studied role of the Catholic Church in transnational moral conservative activism” (151). They have a “social doctrine” that is profoundly intolerant and rejects all LGBTI rights, combining “a long tradition of Russian homophobia (Healey 2017), patristic doctrine (Zorgdrager 2013), and a global anti-SOGI-rights agenda that has its origins outside Russia, in the global culture wars” (153). Finally, the chapter touches on the Vatican, whose statements against SOGI rights are even more detailed than the Moscow Patriarchate’s. They also include as evidence of this Pope Francis and his occasionally open and appreciative language to LGBT people, with essentially zero action to back it up. The authors conclude with a discussion of how these forces sometimes work in alliance with others, which can draw concrete benefits.
Chapter Five is the author’s swivel to the narrative within the moral conservative movement itself. The authors claim that “Moral conservatives construct their adversary by willfully misrepresenting the SOGI rights movement and transforming it into a symbol of everything else they reject: communism, global capitalism, liberalism, and international institutions” (173). They then make a comparison between the language and actions used in the moral conservatism movements and those of conspiracy theories. Many morally conservative actors believe that their religious beliefs are threatened by secular culture and that their values and choices are put in question by the laissez-faire majority society, which makes them more susceptible to conspiracy theories. The authors claim that “This moral conservative worldview, which travels between languages, societies, cultures, and religious denominations, is the work of transnational networks of actors who contribute to framing policy issues in a way that engenders resistance to SOGI rights” and that this worldview rarely even distinguishes between different claims about nation, religion, women, family, etc. (176). First mentioned to support this claim are nationalism and religion, as the authors explain that “Moral conservative critics of SOGI rights depict the language of equal rights as part of a totalitarian project intended to restrict or extinguish religious freedom” (182). The authors also uphold this claim by providing several tactics used this rhetoric: threats to children; which moral conservative narratives use to construct negative emotions and moral panic; threats to women, which are used most often in anti-abortion agreements and, of course, do not include transgender women; and threats to family and society. Lastly, the chapter closes by reconstructing the history of these perspectives and shows how this narrative justifies the anti-SOGI-rights claims made by these TANS. Among the important historical events are the rejection of communism, the critique of cosmopolitan capitalism, the refutation of liberalism, and the blaming of international organizations.
Chapter Six explains the international venues (the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and the Council of Europe) where moral conservative networks show resistance against SOGI rights. First, they discuss the UN and the UN Human Rights Council, which they claim is a main venue for debates on all sorts of topical issues during gatherings and seminars, including SOGI issues. To support this idea, the authors explain that many amendments created are scanned for “gender-sensitive language” and these words are changed accordingly. They also offer the Russian Orthodox Church as evidence, which, while involved in resolutions for the UNHRC, “interpreted human rights not in an individual light, but in a social and public one. The focus was not on how human rights protect individuals, but on how they enable them to do certain things, for example, change one’s religion or use freedom of speech,” and wanted to define a limit to human rights in the name of “traditional morality” (209). Next, the focus turns to the Council of Europe, including the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The ECtHR has done more than any other institution for SOGI rights, hence why the EU is renowned as a SOGI rights ‘champion’, but it also has become a site for contention. New political majorities and ideas are tested and formed within PACE through debates, motions, recommendations, and resolutions. Last presented is global academia and knowledge production, which, following the helix model, is used both for and against SOGI rights. The authors cite several prominent academics from all over the world, and their published anti-SOGI books as evidence for their claim that academia is, in fact, one of these prominent international venues.
Finally, Chapter Seven explores SOGI movement responses to seeing their cause and their own communities weaponized by moral conservative politics. The authors claim these LGBTI and SOGI movements have innovated in response to this juxtaposed usage of their own tactics and strategies. Although the chapter supports this claim entirely with responses from only highly professionalized SOGI movement actors (ILGA, ILGA-Europe, OSF), they do choose to acknowledge that there are many other movement initiatives against moral conservative actors. They do not touch at all on demonstration, knowledge production, media exposure, intelligence sharing, or legal training. Some might counter that these are some of the most important activism and responses. The authors acknowledge this but believe that these professional movements have significant and clearly observable responses. They also remind readers of temporality, as these SOGI activists will forever be evolving and changing their practices. The chapter supports the author’s claims of innovation by drawing on both secondary literature and original data from focus groups and interviews carried out at international SOGI-activist summits and conferences. They supplement ads and campaign posters, which directly show the helix model, as both movements use the exact same ad idea and photo in different contexts, which support their own claims. They also provide as concrete evidence a content analysis of European SOGI rights movement documents from 2004 to 2016, which tracked how the movement repackaged the notion of family values and traditional values.
The authors conclude with several key takeaways. The first being that SOGI rights, and gender and sexuality themselves, are embedded in international relations. They are often dismissed to other matters such as war or economy, but they play a large hand in the ideology and politics of nations. In fact, the authors claim that “sexuality and gender [is] at the heart of the biggest European war of the new century” (259). The authors use the example of the current war in Ukraine as illustrative of how SOGI plays into international relations. The authors then claim that much transnational organizing has underestimated the importance of traditional values concerning religious and national identities, which are so important in driving anti-SOGI mobilization. These traditional value movements are persistent, even in times when it feels like the only way to move is forward, towards SOGI rights. Varied backgrounds, faiths, and political beliefs do not stop the moral conservative movement from transnational organizing. They continue to work together for progress despite differences on certain issues. The book notes, “This newfound global perspective is driven not simply by their opposition to SOGI rights, but their conviction for an alternative to the liberal political mainstream” (265). Finally, the authors close by reminding their readers of the importance of the double helix model, asserting it can be applied to human rights research and activism more generally. They warn of the importance of acknowledging the parochialism of the moral conservative narrative, urging progressives to open up discourses.
This is an interesting and clearly well-researched book, though a bit dense in some areas. I was initially confused and slowed by all the acronyms, but the authors carefully explained them early on, which helped clarify all their usages. Something the book could have done differently is incorporate some personal testimony—either from individuals affected by these networks or from the authors themselves, or possibly relating their own experiences at the conferences and meetings they researched. This would have added a more subjective, emotional component to the argument and added a personal touch. With that said, the book treats its subject comprehensively, covering each point completely and thoughtfully. The helix model thesis was strongly supported throughout, and every chapter supplemented the argument that these networks do exist and mirror each other in their practices. The authors provided well-paired examples that made their argument more credible as the chapters went on. I liked the graphs, adverts, and further explanations as well, which helped to simplify and make the material more enjoyable. The structure was fine, with properly organized chapters and appropriate subtitles that allowed for a smooth transition of ideas. One of the strengths of the book was how it wove in historical context, such as the histories of these groups, the countries involved, and the role of church and state. Though this was relevant to their points and often unknown to me, some of the historical sections were dry. Overall, the book made a strong, well-supported argument, but could have been a bit more engaging.
The Global Fight Against LGBTI Rights is a crucial text in understanding how transnational networks interact, as well as how progress in LGBTI rights is both enabled and constrained. Although the effects of these networks are evident, the processes behind their operations usually are not so clear, at least to the general public. Ayoub and Stoeckl provide insight into these dynamics, demonstrating how religious denominations, nationalist movements, and state governments collaborate to counter LGBTI rights globally. They also include their helix model to show how pro-SOGI rights groups use these same tactics. Their book sheds light on the role of conservative politics and religious actors in the construction of legal and cultural resistance, demonstrating how authoritarian and populist regimes use this issue to consolidate national identity against perceived Western influence. Given the modern global situation, where LGBTI rights are still threatened, such an understanding is important in order to inform measures to successfully counteract organized opposition. The book’s critical reception is likely to be positive among scholars and human rights campaigners for its rigorous examination, yet it can anticipate being criticized by conservative positions that aim to frame resistance to SOGI rights as a moral or cultural position rather than as a reactionary trend. Last but not least, the book makes important contributions to the scholarship on global LGBTI and SOGI rights, our understanding of the political and ideological forces that shape these struggles.
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