LGBTQ Policy Journal

In the opening to her seminal 2003 memoire and manifesto, My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser, Helen Boyd describes a scene of a wife dressing up in her husband’s clothes. The wife smells the fabric of his shirt, thinking of him. She admires the way it looks in a full-length mirror. […]

As the chief executive of the country’s fourth largest city, Houston Mayor Annise Parker is arguably the most visible out-LGBT policymaker in the country. Parker sat down with Crosby Burns, the LGBTQ Policy Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, earlier this week to discuss her tenure as mayor, reflect upon her career in public service, and talk about the […]

On March 31st 1994, a historic decision was made at the United Nations (UN) regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights. The UN Human Rights Committee ruled that an Australian law criminalizing all sexual relations between consenting adult men violated the human rights of Tasmanian activist Nicholas Toonen, and subjected him to the […]

ABSTRACT The United States has undergone a dramatic shift in the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, yet the majority of school sex education programs continue to focus almost exclusively on heterosexual relationships and marriage. These programs do not portray same-sex couples in vignettes and hypothetical dilemmas or discuss variations in sexual orientation and gender identity. […]

ABSTRACT Egyptian and Sudanese legal systems and societies have long led to discrimination and violence against homosexuals. Through a series of anecdotes, this article explores the daily struggles faced by individuals in these conservative and largely Muslim societies. We look for the sources of the discrimination and violence they confront, and we acknowledge that much […]

Today activists at the Harvard Kennedy School held a powerful vigil for the tragic and unnecessary deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and many of the other young black men who have lost their lives due to systemic injustices and racism that plague our society. This vigil took place in the Kennedy School […]

Introduction Using interviews with sexual minorities as well as discussions with community organizers and leaders, this article reports on human rights issues faced by sexual minorities in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in key areas, including discrimination, harassment, physical safety, family relationships, access to health and education, and protection by authorities. Sexual minorities in Dar es […]

Abstract Starting in late 2011, “LGBT rights” became a prominent and contentious part of the international development agenda. While most of the resulting attention has been directed to questions of aid conditionality, this essay instead aims to preliminarily map the range of policies set out by twelve of the largest development agencies on “LGBT” or […]

Mavi Suselwas the first transgender person to receive sex-reassignment surgery in Cuba in 1988. She came to be well-knownthrough the Cuban film “In the Wrong Body” (“en el cuerpo equivocado”), in which she shared her journey of dealing with gender identity. Her story represents great progress for the LGBT movement in Cuba. And yet, as […]

I am often underwhelmed at people’s reactions to learning I’m gay. I am baffled when straight and straitlaced men take this in stride. I often feel like screaming, “Did you hear me?! I said I put a penis in my butt, on purpose, for fun!” But to do so would undermine much of the rhetoric […]

The authors are former student-leaders of various LBGTQ organizations and initiatives in Yale College and the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.[1] When Rachel’s grandfather wanted to help his family members resolve familial tension or hurt, he would take off his glasses, tilt his head down slightly, and say in a quiet voice but […]

In 2010, a gay Rutgers freshman, Tyler Clementi, discovered his roommate had used a webcam to film him having sex with another man, encouraging other students to watch by posting the video online. Humiliated and distraught, Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge a few days later. His suicide confronted the public and policymakers, highlighting […]