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The authors wanted to compare the experience of LGBT people in two very different working environments, the UK and Turkey. The countries have different state structures and legislative frameworks.

The authors opted to answer the research question: How LGBT NGOs understand and perceive the inclusion and exclusion of LGBT individuals at work? They interviewed 40 individuals (20 in each country) working at LGBT organizations

Analysis showed that in Turkish workplaces, LGB individuals tend not to express their sexuality openly because they fear dismissal. Few individuals feel able to “come out” at work. Transgender people, especially transgender women, face a lot of discrimination in Turkey. Meanwhile, in the UK, there is a far more inclusionary workplace culture. Nevertheless, LGB individuals may still face some discrimination in the UK. Working within LGBT organizations in both countries was much easier.

Studying two such different cultures revealed major differences, but also some commonalities. The study revealed the importance of unions in the UK in driving policies for LGBT individuals.

This chapter considers how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists in Namibia and South Africa appropriate discourses of decolonization associated with African national liberation movements. I examine the legal, cultural, and political possibilities associated with LGBT activists’ framing of law reform as a decolonization project. LGBT activists identified laws governing gender and sexual nonconformity as in particular need of reform. Using data from daily ethnographic observation of LGBT movement organizations, in-depth qualitative interviews with LGBT activists, and newspaper articles about political homophobia, I elucidate how Namibian and South African LGBT activists conceptualize movement challenges to antigay laws as decolonization.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a causal impact of party affiliation of state governors operating within a liberal state legislature on labor market activity of transgender individuals. The common perception is that Republicans are more likely to believe a person’s gender is determined by their sex at birth than Democrats. Such beliefs can influence voting, policies and practices.

Survey data on employment outcomes and other individual level characteristics are used from two surveys focusing on transgender individuals for the periods 2008 and 2015. These surveys represent the largest collection of data that examines the experiences of transgender people in the USA. To establish a casual effect, this analysis employs fixed effects Ordinary Least Squares methods and Propensity Score Matching algorithms.

Exploiting variations in the party affiliation of governors and liberal state governments, the study finds mixed employment effects of living in a Democratic-governed liberal state. Specifically, this paper shows that transgender people living in such states have an 18 percentage point (or 26 percent) higher likelihood of being employed in the 2008 survey, but a 16.4 percentage point (or 25 percent) lower likelihood of being employed in the 2015 survey. Despite the lower propensity to be out of the labor market in the 2008 sample, results from both surveys indicate a higher likelihood of being unemployed. These findings are robust to the inclusion of additional covariates (including confounders), alternative specifications and different estimation techniques. Heterogeneous effects are also explored.

To the authors’ current knowledge, this is the first study to systematically investigate the relationship between living in democratically governed liberal states and labor market circumstances of transgender people in the USA. This is the first paper to establish a causal relationship using matching techniques. The paper also provides suggestive evidence of the role of government ideology in influencing the working lives of transgender people.

To identify the Obama administration’s policy responsiveness to the (African) American LGBT communities.

Theory development and content analysis.

Civic universalism, as a theory, can explain President Obama’s evolution on his support for marriage rights for same-sex couples. Obama employed the concept of e pluribus unum in his many approaches to LGBT responsive politics.

To date, theoretical development within the social sciences of LGBT policy responsiveness is limited.

Very little is written on the subject of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered) politics in the 21st century. The study of the LGBT experience generally has been devoid of political variables because of a lack of attention toward LGBT issues, until recently, in national political party agendas. In this chapter, we review some of the contours of the LGBT community’s fight for political recognition in the United States as a precursor to the election and reelection of President Obama. Drawing parallels with presidential responsiveness toward Blacks in their quest for rights, we examine the Obama administration’s LGBT public policy initiatives as administrative policy and programs. We conclude by identifying new areas of research to explore on LGBT politics.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the inclusion and exclusion of LGBT individuals at organisations towards providing evidence from LGBT non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Turkey and the UK.

In order to achieve this aim, 40 semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews (20 in each country) were conducted. The empirical dimension of this study was invigorated by thematic analysis of interviews that composed of the individuals and members who work in LGBT organisations in Turkey and the UK.

The significance and the role of context in shaping public discourse, policies and practices of LGBT organisations in Turkey and the UK were explored in greater details. Based on the coding and thematic analysis of the interviews, three main findings were presented, which are “inclusion and exclusion at work”, “inclusion and exclusion in politics” and “inclusion in LGBT organisations”.

The originality of this research comes from its unique nature with a comparative approach on the contrary of current LGBT research that mostly focusses on an individual level of analysis and workplace discrimination. Research evidence demonstrates that there are a number of complexities, contradictions and tensions based on the specific characteristics of each country setting where various cultural, societal, political and legislative/regulative forces come into play in LGBT inclusion at organisations. Consequently, this research provides valuable insights for the inclusion of sexual minorities drawing on the evidence from LGBT NGOs in Turkey and the UK.

Departing from Turkish national debates around Islam, national belonging, and homosexuality during 2008–2011, this paper shows how “LGBT rights” discourses ultimately worked to position Muslim headscarf activists as against LGBT activists by rendering complex positions that do not follow easy “for vs. against” LGBT rights political formulas as “homophobic.” In return, this foreclosed potential solidarities differently injured citizens could have formed against increasing neoliberal state violence. I show that the multitude of Muslim women’s positions on the issue of LGBT rights complicates easy religious/secular binaries and illuminates how it is not only human rights discourses but also their “Western” critiques that travel transnationally. This story also contributes to current debates on postsecularism by illustrating how the same national context can house both liberal rights frameworks that can be used against pious Muslim subjects, and a monopolization of a definition of Islam for state power. Finally, I offer “politics of cruelty” and “right to sin” as alternative frameworks for imagining social justice outside of liberal rights-based politics.

Purpose – We examine electoral politics in the City of Atlanta, GA, and shed light on the prospect that in 2009 Atlanta elected its “last Black mayor.”  We consider how African American tensions around class and social identity may demobilize key constituents of the Black electoral coalition while an increasing Black out-migration and White in-migration had changed the city’s racial balance of electoral power. Recognizing the margin of victory in the 2009 mayoral election between Kasim Reed (an African American) and Mary Norwood (a White challenger) was small (714 votes), we examine how electoral and demographic characteristics explain this result.Methodology – We utilize (1) the 2009 State of Georgia Board of Elections voter demographic file; (2) 2010 Census data (ACS 5 year estimates), and 2009 Mayoral Election count data. We presented descriptive statistics, comparing community level factors and voter characteristics.Research implications – The limitations of this work is that it is exploratory and thus we do not statistically isolate the effects of class and social identity.Findings – Our findings indicate that Reed and other Black elected officials will have to make concerted efforts if they hope to “retain” the Black poor as well as gay and lesbian citizens within a progressive electoral coalition.

Central to the notion of citizenship is equality, social inclusion and social justice, yet heterosexual constructions of citizenship continue to privilege. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between citizenship, social policy and sexual identity, comparing experiences found in the UK and the USA.

The paper examines the concepts of nation, identity and belonging, taking account of normative discourses and structures such as the family, to illustrate how social policy creates second‐class status for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people (LGBT).

The paper finds that within the relationship between the state and LGBT citizens, there is institutional hostility towards LGBT people, and explores the ways in which policy makers characterise difference as abnormal, inferior, of less worth and importantly, problematic.

The paper is of value in discussing Queer theory and in seeking to challenge and transform the social exclusion of LGBT citizens, by contributing to the rise in new forms of citizenship. The paper takes account of evolving models of citizenship that seek to redress current inadequate mainstream structures.

Purpose: This chapter explores the relationship between international human rights and the domestic practices of nation-states around lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights.

Methodology/approach: Using Sweden and Russia as case studies, this chapter analyzes LGBT human rights recommendations from the cyclical United Nations Universal Periodic Review and how they affect practices within nation-states.

Findings: Sweden embraces recommendations to strengthen LGBT human rights and institutes stronger national LGBT rights policies of its own, while Russia’s compliance with LGBT rights recommendations is low. Further, reports of LGBT victimization show that the severity of attacks on LGBT people is pronounced in Russia.

Social implications: Relying on case studies limits the generalizability of this study, but the implications of these findings suggest that, to strengthen human rights compliance and improve the lives of minority citizens, human rights advocates should take note of domestic ideologies and leverage the institutional environment of the world society to provide information, resources, and pressure to facilitate nation-states’ compliance with international human rights recommendations.

Originality/value: This chapter deepens the discourse on the contested realm of international LGBT rights by highlighting the dynamics between international monitoring mechanisms, domestic discourse, and domestic law.