LGBTQ+ activism in Azerbaijan: shifting queer (in)visibility regime through power–knowledge technologies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The queer (in)visibility regime in Azerbaijan has been historically structured through centralizing powers and the coloniality of knowledge(s) in their Russian/Soviet and contemporary Western manifestations. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis, this study shows how local queer activism arises through the appropriation of Western LGBTQ+ discourse and the use of the internet, with its novel spaces and digitally mediated discursive practices. In addition to its humanizing and normalizing effects, these organizations generate a new space for the realization of homosexual desire against the old Soviet subjectivity while preserving their didactic enlightener position towards Western/European pedagogy. Finally, this study argues that homosexuality has become a means of boundary-making practices both inside and outside the country, positioning on the borderline between symbolic Europe and national characteristics.