GLOBALISATION OF RAINBOW ACTIVISM TOWARDS THE HUMAN RIGHTS DIRECTION OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY

Abstract

Rainbow activism is a human rights movement of the LGBTQ community against discrimination and socio-sexual inequality. It is a global socio-political and socio-legal movement aimed at achieving equal opportunities, equal rights, equal benefits, human dignity, and the freedom of choice. The rainbow is the symbol of sexual and gender equality and the symbol of unity. Over the last three decades, global activist and advocating networks centred on the geopolitics of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) rights have proliferated. On the one hand, there has been a globalisation of human rights, with human rights becoming a key criterion for measuring nations' "progress." On the other hand, same-sex sexualities as identities have been globalised. Sexual orientation and gender identity are finally getting recognition and depiction in global forums recently. The historical examination of the LGBTQ movement in comparison to the civil rights struggle and local case studies provides new context and significance to the trajectories of misplaced possibilities. In terms of advancing toward greater recognition of LGBTQ rights worldwide, these movements have the potential to clash rather than complement one another. Opposition to cosmopolitan claims to LGBTQ rights is frequently rooted in communitarian claims based on the language of a people's right to self-determination. However, the paper argues primarily through content analysis that, the discourse of equality under the law can and has been successfully used by local LGBTQ rights activists. This has been achieved through several strategies, including the recognition of multiple and intersecting identities; the development of a discourse in which global legal standards become part of the "essence of a people," and the re-creation of an authentic past within the context of a national community. As a result, LGBTQ rights activists can now move seamlessly between local and global discourses. Finally, the paper concludes that LGBTQ rights struggles are most effective when they fight not only for the protection of rights for individuals based on the universal declaration of human rights but also for incorporation at the level of community through socio-political discussion within the larger society.