The Queer Politics of Pride

The first book to explore the global politics of LGBTQ+ Pride, exploring the impacts, controversies and potential of Pride in across the world.

Pride originated in the United States as a specific festival, season of public events and site of protest aiming to celebrate and affirm LGBTQ+ community, generate greater visibility and campaign for increased rights. Now held in over 200 towns and cities across the world, Pride festivals can attract millions of attendees and have been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ activism. However, in recent years it has attracted controversy, with its political and social purpose widely debated by LGBTQ+ groups and in the media.

Drawing from extensive fieldwork in South and East Asia, South Africa, the Philippines, Cuba and New York, The Queer Politics of Pride explores and conceptualises the contemporary politics of LGBTQ+ Pride and queer activism in global contexts. Building on critical queer scholarship, the book includes the perspectives and critiques of grassroots queer activists and applies contemporary social, political and international theory to conceptualise Pride as part of the global processes of capitalism and its socio-political and spatial dynamics.

By exploring the politics and controversies of Pride, Conway addresses broader questions about the contemporary LGBTQ+ advocacy movement including the influence and place of corporate sponsorship and advocacy, relationship with state institutions, the rise of an LGBT global elite and its implications for influence and marginalisation, diplomatic involvement in LGBT advocacy and the place of Pride in defining, revealing and concealing LGBTQ+ identities, progress and whose lives are valued (and devalued).