Queer Lovers and Hateful Others : Regenerating Violent Times and Places

J. Haritaworn

Since 9/11, gay men and women have experienced relative liberation in parts of the Western world. Coinciding with queer and transgender mobilisations, contemporary queer identity is changing, homosexuality has become acceptable within the army and the police, and (heavily de-sexualised) images of same-sex affection have become mainstream. In Queer Lovers and Hateful Others, however, Jin Haritaworn challenges this progression by exposing what happens to this discourse when sexuality and the racial or religious 'Other' collide. He discusses how the sexual understanding of 'terror' has become increasingly prevalent across the globe in a destructive and overarching ideology. For example, he discusses how gendered images of Islam such as the veil and 'honour crimes' are circulated, largely unchallenged. He looks at movements on the ground, such as how anti-Islam activists have been able to mobilise existing notions of 'Muslim sexism' in order to mainstream a new discourse on 'Muslim homophobia'. Important, timely and innovative, this book provides an engagement with pressing political issues regarding current trends within sexual and gender politics in the neo-colonial world order.