Jesse Fraga / Staff Writer
The LGBTQ+ community is constantly challenged by lawmakers worldwide in a fight for equal rights. While there are many policies that have pushed this community forward, one activist from FIU is working to continue this fight.
On Friday, June 19, an episode of the Instagram Live series, “That’s So Queer!” featured FIU’s Associate Director of LGBTQ+ Initiatives, Erica Jayne Friedman, and Markus Thiel, an associate professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations.
In the hour-long episode, Friedman and Thiel discussed how LGBTQ+ rights are achieved through evidence-based research focusing on individual cases, rather than general and clinical samples, as well as a growing mentality regarding the community that is proving itself more harmful than good.
Thiel argues that while the study of international relations tends to be fairly liberal, political science academia generally holds a conservative perspective on LGBTQ+ rights, opposing modern efforts to protect this community. With this, he feels compelled to be a voice for the community in order to fit the queer mainstream.
However, as Thiel admits, “I don’t feel that I’m all that queer.”
As a white gay male, he encourages other LGBTQ+ scholars like himself to use their privileges in an attempt to increase the presence of their community, or rather, to “queer” political academia.
Studying historical precedents in the LGBTQ+ community can help create a guide in establishing equal rights for all. But the biggest issue lawmakers face is whether this marginalized group is truly equal.
Because of the growing presence of queers in modern society, especially compared to the past few decades where such topics were taboo, it creates a hypervisibility of queerness in certain nations.
While an increased presence of LGBTQ+ members is unequivocally good, unfortunately it does invite other problems down the road to progress.
Thiel believes that this hypervisibility creates a false narrative of progress for the community, which influences lawmakers to wrongfully believe that the LGBTQ+ community already obtains the rights it deserves.
Thiel feels it will take both evidence and locally-based practice on the ground to observe large scale shifts in queer policy.
While mainstream liberals often fight for queer rights, Thiel brought up common issues of homonationalism and pinkwashing.
Thiel describes homonationalism as a favorable association between nationalistic ideology and LGBTQ+ people and their rights.
While it sounds nice on paper, Thiel said that homonationality leads to praising only the countries whose LGBTQ+ rights line up with U.S. ideals, as well as creating a justification for negative or intolerant behavior towards non-like minded individuals.
Pinkwashing is a marketing tactic where businesses promote queer-friendliness merely to be perceived as progressive, but is often proved to be shallow, superficial and ultimately insincere.
In short, both of these outlooks tend to hold back the community with their delusions of progress rather than pushing it forward.
“They are sort of the backward homophobes,” Thiel said. “That is quite problematic.”
Overtime, LGBTQ+ activists have gained many achievements for their community. However, today the fight over human rights for all continues to prevail more than ever before.
To learn more about this topic, Thiel encourages students to check out his course on international LGBTQ+ politics advocacy, INR 4073, which will be taught in the upcoming fall semester.
To receive updates on future LGBTQA Initiatives programming, including “That’s So Queer!,” follow @fiulgbtqa on Instagram.
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