The LGBT movement has celebrated many victories over the past twenty years, from the legalization of same-sex marriage in many countries to the passage of a host of anti-discrimination laws. But many queer issues seem to fall outside the umbrella of mainstream LGBT activism--including the pinkwashing of immigration policies in the United States, the criminalization of same-sex relations in Uganda, Yemen, and Guyana, and the lack of protections for sex workers all over the world. Are the LGBT movement's successes to date really the endpoint for liberatory sexual politics?
Exploring how identity, capitalism, and power interact with sexual politics, Scott Long paints a picture of what sexual rights and freedoms mean today, asking: Who is absent from this celebrated progress, and why? Examining sex work, the constraints and creative potentials of queer identities, and the moral panics and attendant violence occurring in opposition to LGBT rights, Long demands that transformative dissidence comes once more to the forefront of LGBT activism.
Looking at flashpoint issues, Long articulates a concrete role for sexual and gender politics in an anti-capitalist imaginary and provides us with alternative solutions for an international and radically inclusive LGBT revolution.