At the intersections: understanding LGBT rights, HIV prevention, and queer political activism in Ghana

这项研究考察了加纳阿克拉酷儿政治激进主义的特征。具体地说，它考虑了来自全球北方的女同性恋者、男同性恋者、双性恋者和变性人(LGBT)的权利和身份认同模式如何与当地同性恋的政治实践和主观性形式相联系(和脱节)。在这样做的过程中，它解决了两个主要的学术辩论：关于同性恋身份的“全球化”，以及关于艾滋病毒干预和撒哈拉以南非洲LGBT权利话语的影响。在方法上，这项研究基于13个月的HIV/LGBT权利组织和酷儿工人阶级男性网络的人种学研究--当地称为sasoi(SING)。萨索)-在阿克拉。这项研究还包括29次英语和加纳语混合的深度访谈和8次对萨索活动家的集体访谈。这项研究提出了三个相互关联的核心论点：1.固定的或“普遍主义”的LGBT权利和身份模式并没有篡夺或消除阿克拉当地同性恋的主观性和政治形式。相反，他们已经被萨索活动家以务实和特定于背景的方式本地化，作为挑战主导性别规范和权力关系的奇怪语言、主观和具体做法的流动词汇的一部分；2.虽然加纳目前没有LGBT权利“运动”，但存在一系列可以被理解为激进主义的奇怪的政治形态、行为者和做法--无论是正式的还是非正式的。3.与此同时，萨索的生活和政治受到一系列系统性或“霸权主义”的制约，特别是阶级关系、同性恋恐惧症和异常性，这些往往被发展的政治经济(以及以自愿为基础的艾滋病毒干预措施)所强化。这种霸权妥协了萨索的政治激进主义，并在全球发展参与者的行动和议程与工人阶级萨索的需求和优先事项之间产生了错位。这项研究位于一个新兴的研究语料库中，该语料库考察了全球同性恋文化、艾滋病毒倡议和LGBT激进主义，这项研究的贡献有三个：经验；理论；分析。在实证方面，它对阿克拉萨索活动家的生活和政治实践进行了深入的人种学描述，从而导致了加纳关于酷儿性行为和激进主义的文献稀少。这项研究关注的是主位和“来自下面”的声音，直接挑战了对同性恋身份的“普遍性”描述以及对艾滋病毒和LGBT权利话语的确定性解读(Altman，1996；Kole，2007；Massad，2002)。相反，它阐述了权利和身份模型如何在这种背景下传播、扩散和转变。这样做，这项研究打破了发展和公共卫生文献中的现有趋势，这些文献主要关注与全球南方酷儿性行为有关的话语或流行病学(Young and Meyer，2005；Jolly，2007；Cornwall&Jolly，2009；Beyrer等人，2012；Gosine，2015)，并授权加纳酷儿活动家和政治行动模式的机构。从理论上讲，这项研究借鉴了马克思主义政治经济学，并以阶级和性行为的交集为中心，扩展了现有的关于全球南方同性性行为的酷儿和后结构主义影响的文学(Nguyen，2008；Gdio，2009；Ekine&Abbas，2013；Boyce，2014；Sandfort et al，2015)的范围。因此，通过将后结构主义、对身份和差异的心理动力学关注与植根于政治经济学的方法相结合，这项研究提供了对加纳同性恋生活和政治的持续洞察，并为在全球南方和全球北方研究类似问题的学者提供了一个强大的理论和分析框架。

This research examines the character of queer political activism in Accra, Ghana. Specifically, it considers how models of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights and identity emerging from the global North connect (and disconnect) with local queer political practices and forms of subjectivity. In so doing, it addresses two primary scholarly debates: on the 'globalisation' of gay identity and on the impact of HIV interventions and LGBT rights discourses in sub-Saharan Africa. Methodologically, the research is based on a thirteen month ethnography of an HIV/LGBT rights organisation and among networks of queer working class men - locally called sasoi (sing. saso) - in Accra. This also comprised twenty-nine in-depth interviews in a blend of English and Ghanaian languages and eight group interviews with saso activists.The study makes three central, interlinked arguments:1. that fixed or 'universalist' models of LGBT rights and identity have not usurped or erased local queer subjectivities and forms of politics in Accra. Rather, they have been indigenised by saso activists in pragmatic and context-specific ways, as part of a fluid lexicon of queer linguistic, subjective, and embodied practices that challenge dominant gender norms and power relations;2. that whilst there is not currently an LGBT rights 'movement' in Ghana, there exists a range of queer political formations, actors, and practices - both formal and informal - that can be understood as activism. Moreover, this contingent, context-bound arrangement - what I term the 'assemblage' of queer Ghanaian activism - has significant transformative power;3. that, at the same time, saso lives and politics are mediated by a set of systematic or 'hegemonic' constraints, notably class relations, homophobia, and heteronormativity, which are frequently reinforced by the political economy of development (and by HIV interventions predicated on voluntarism). This hegemony compromises saso political activism and produces a dislocation between the operations and agendas of global development actors and the needs and priorities of working class sasoi.Located within an emerging corpus of research that examines global queer cultures, HIV initiatives, and LGBT activism, the contribution of this research is threefold: empirical; theoretical; and analytical. In empirical terms, it contributes to the scant literature on queer sexualities and activism in Ghana by offering an in-depth ethnographic account of the lives and political practices of saso activists in Accra. With its concern for the emic and the voice 'from below', the study directly challenges 'universalising' accounts of gay identity and deterministic readings of HIV and LGBT rights discourses (Altman, 1996; Kole, 2007; Massad, 2002). It sets out instead how rights and identity models travel, diffuse, and transform in this setting. In so doing, the study breaks with existing trends in the development and public health literatures that focus primarily on the discursive or the epidemiological in relation to queer sexualities in the global South (Young and Meyer, 2005; Jolly, 2007; Cornwall & Jolly, 2009; Beyrer et al, 2012; Gosine, 2015) and privileges the agency of queer Ghanaian activists and modes of political action. Theoretically, the study expands the scope of the existing queer and poststructuralist-inflected literature on same-sex sexualities in the global South (Nguyen, 2008; Gaudio, 2009; Ekine & Abbas, 2013; Boyce, 2014; Sandfort et al, 2015) by drawing on Marxist political economy and by centering the intersection of class and sexuality. Thus, by synthesising a poststructuralist, psychodynamic concern for identity and difference with an approach rooted in political economy, the study offers sustained insight into queer lives and politics in Ghana and provides a powerful theoretical and analytical framework for scholars working on similar issues in both the global South and global North.